Mega budget for poll campaigning in 2014 By Dr Satish Misra General elections season has begun as every political party in electoral fray is making its best efforts to woo the voters with all means at its disposal. Parties, depending upon their size and spread, earmark a sizable portion of their resources both men and material for campaign advertising. Slogans, publicity material and advertising play a crucial role in catching the popular imagination which gets swayed by the underlying message of such a campaign and thus impact the results of an election. Role of advertising can be clearly be seen in the rise of Bharatiya Janata Partys prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (NaMo) who is understood to have hired a US based PR agency to project his persona across the country. Lok Sabha 2014 polls are sure to be one of the most keenly contested elections with the NaMos highly polarising shrill campaigning style dominating the political environment. While details of advertising and campaign strategy of the two national parties have come into open, regional parties and other smaller parties are both shy as well as circumspect in sharing the details of their strategies but they are also relying on their advertising strategies, The Congress has given its advertising campaign contract to JWT which had handled the partys campaign in 2009 general elections and then for the UP assembly polls in 2011. The BJP, on the contrary, has roped in more than one agency to look after their advertising campaign. The BJP has asked admen that the campaign has to be Modi-centric and message of Gujarat Development model must reach out to people. Towering personality of its prime ministerial candidate should remain the guiding spirit behind the entire campaign, according to party sources. The campaign will also focus on youth development and anti-corruption. Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat, a tag line given by Modi, is going to be one of the main campaign themes. The creative duties for the campaigning task are believed to be shared between Soho Square-a subsidiary of Ogilvy z& Mather (O&M) and TAG-a subsidiary of McCann Worldgroup. Apart from it, the BJP also roped in Prasoon Joshi who head McCann Worldgroup in India, in his individual capacity as a lyricist. Media planner Sam Balsara is also part of the main opposition partys campaign planning. Executive Chairman and Creative Director (south Asia) of Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) Piyush Pandey is also understood to be the part of the exercise which has a budget of Rs 400 crore. The media buying duties, which means setting up communication links across different media platforms like print, Radio, TV, digital and social media, are understood to have been given Madison Media, Lodestar UM and WPP. O&M could not have taken up the account because of global guidelines which restricts groups agencies to work on election campaigns. Pandey, who has been working for the Gujarat governments advertising campaigns, has developed an excellent rapport with Modi and whose insistence he was brought on board of the BJPs national campaign. The Congress, while giving its Rs 500 crore campaign advertising contract to JWT, has also roped in Public Relations consulting firm IPAN which was set up by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis classmate Rajiv Desai. IPAN has been hired in a consultancy role. Sources said that IPAN has been hired in realisation of the complexities of the campaign as in bigger parties like the Congress; many leaders are involved in supervising and monitoring of the campaign. Desai will act as a permanent interface between the agency and the party so that confusion could be avoided. Congress-led UPA government had already launched its Bharat Nirmaan campaign in August last year to highlight its achievements. The governments account is being handled by Percept ad agency. The multi-genre campaign across all media platforms, print, Radio, TV, digital- focuses on UPAs flagship programmes. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi (RaGa), who is personally guiding and monitoring the partys campaign, has clearly told the advertising agency that message should be subtle, inclusive and non-aggressive. The campaign theme is not only keeping young RaGa at the centre of the campaigning but young workers of the party are also prominently figuring in the campaign material. The Congresss focus on Aam Admi ko kya mila in 2004 Lok Sabha polls had blunted the BJPs Indian shining campaign. Similarly in 2009, Aam Admi ke badhte kadam and Jai Ho had helped the party and that is why the party this time is going in for message like Har Hath Shakti, Har hath tarraki. One of the ads even features a young Muslim girl Hasiba Amin, an officer bearer of the Indian Youth Congress, urging the youth to join Rahul Gandhi along with a tag line Kattar soch nahin, Yuva josh. The Aam Admi Party (AAP), though not hiring an advertising agency, has been the most astute user of all the media platforms. Its volunteers, mainly residing in big cities and medium towns, use social media to spread the partys message. Moreover, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwals theatrics and assertive style ensures place in media as he creates news by sitting on dharnas, leading agitations and commenting on events quickly on Face Book of Twitter. AAP leaders are not responsible to party hierarchy while other parties have to carry a party line which works as a serious constraint on them in reaching out to media. What is indeed a surprise that even the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also looking for an advertising agency to plan its campaign The BSP had never hired an agency as its leaders late Kanshiram as well as former UP Chief Minister Mayawati had steadfastly maintained that it did not require an agency to take its message to its dedicated electorate. Elections results would decide whose campaign and whose advertising agency succeeded in wooing the electorate effectively but there cannot be any doubt on the role of campaign advertising. -[IFS] News Updated at : Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 07:57:52 +0000
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