Poll pitch: it’s a problem of plenty

As politicians hit the campaign trail in the run-up to the coming general election, the biggest ever marketing event in the country takes off with political parties marketing their star candidates and ideologies to the 714 million strong electorate. What makes the task daunting is the proliferation of the media in the past few years and the consequent audience segmentation. The popularity of new media platforms such as the Internet and mobile phone and the rise in the number of competitors within the traditional media space, such as television and radio and print, has created new channels of communication with the voter. The actual impact of this phenomenon is coming to the fore now, with political parties working out strategies to reach their target audience.

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Illustrations By Jayachandran / Mint

According to the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies, or CMS, the 2009 Lok Sabha election is expected to cost Rs10,000 crore, much more than what was spent during the US presidential race. As per information available with the US Federal Election Commission, Barack Obama and other candidates collectively spent close to $1.8 billion (around Rs9,144 crore) in 2007-08. While the cost incurred in the US election was spread over a year, India will see this massive expenditure in a matter of months.

This Rs10,000 crore here doesn’t include the cost of holding assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, and is nearly three times the Rs3,500 crore spent in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, says CMS, which has been tracking poll expense for the last four Lok Sabha elections. According to CMS, only 20% of the Rs10,000 crore is expected to be spent on making arrangements for holding the polls which will see candidates from around 43 political parties, including seven national and 36 regional parties, contesting for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The rest will be spent by political parties, officially or unofficially, on campaigns.

The advertising budgets of political parties have more than doubled since 2004 to reach Rs800-850 crore, says N. Bhaskara Rao, a political analyst and chairperson of CMS. “Costs have definitely escalated,” says Tom Vadakkan, media secretary, Congress party, “but we are trying to get more out of our money by bulk buying and a clever mix of expensive and less expensive media.”

Also See Changing Media Landscape (PDF)

Observers say the proliferation of media platforms between 2004 and 2009 and the need for political parties to spread themselves across all consumer communication touch points is the reason for the increase in spending.