While door-to-door campaigning and political rallies continue to be the mainstay of election campaigns, political parties in India are looking at advertising campaigns across media platforms to reach the elusive voter, especially in urban areas.
Political parties are now more focused in their marketing strategies, and communication campaigns are going beyond reinforcing the party symbol. The proportion of poll budgets allocated to advertising has gone up and professional advertising agencies are being used.
For advertising agencies, too, it has been a learning curve—the target group is diffused and most ads take the regional language route.
Outdoor media, with its banners, hoardings and pamphlets, is the most obvious choice in political campaigns, with print ads a close second. The digital media has gained significance because of its ability to interact with urban voters; radio ads made their debut in the ongoing assembly elections. Television, despite its potential, has failed to click with parties and voters alike, mainly due to the poor quality of the ads.
Campaign looks at how political parties are using these mediums to spread the word—and how effective each is.
Television
Although India’s 115 million television households (75 million of them cable and satellite homes) make TV an ideal platform for any advertiser who wants to reach a mass audience, the medium has failed to click for political advertising campaigns.
The combined spending of the two major political parties—Congress and BJP—on TV is Rs60 crore, or 15% of the Rs400 crore advertising budget (for all political parties in the fray), for the ongoing assembly elections in six states.
Advertising experts believe it is because TV does not give political parties enough bang for the buck. A 10-second spot can sell for anywhere between Rs5,000 on a regional language channel to at least Rs1.5 lakh on a popular channel during prime time, say media buyers, while other platforms such as radio and outdoor are as effective and cheaper.
“Voter banks are not in big cities but in rural areas where posters, meetings and mobile vans reach out to more potential voters than a TV ad which costs 10 times the amount,” says Sumira Roy, founder of Mumbai-based advertising agency Postscript. “And spending so much on a political campaign, like the BJP did with the India Shining campaign last elections, can actually backfire and work against the party.”
“At a time when Indian advertising has become so creative and has set standards internationally, the quality of political campaigns on TV remains poor and reflects badly on the industry,” says a senior advertising agency executive who didn’t want to be named. “Especially the BJP ads that featured politicians using the attacks in Mumbai to gain votes on TV and print was atrocious and will make them lose supporters.”