This is common during any election season: There will be one set of ads painting candidates in glowing colours, extolling their virtues and their unimpeachable characters, brandishing their rare accomplishments. The other set of ads simply go for the jugular — they demolish the opponents’ ethics and records, and go on to prove how they would be an absolute disaster if voted to power.
It’s not going to be much different in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. As the elections draw near, rallies and campaigns will take centrestage, and candidates will use every trick in the book to lay claim to your allegiance.
What might be a bit different this time is the pervasive use of social media. In the aftermath of the 2019 general election, people became aware of just how powerful and game changing social media could be. In that sense, social media is already mainstream; this election, it is expected to have a much larger and significant effect.
Yasin Hamidani, director, Media Care Brand Solutions, says, “Engagement strategies now involve interactive campaigns, live sessions, videos, podcasts, influencer-led communication and messaging on apps like WhatsApp. With data analytics, the parties in the fray now get a clearer idea of voter sentiment and behaviour.”
As per media reports, digital media spending was upwards of Rs 500 crore in the 2019 election. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube were the go-to platforms on social media. YouTube and Facebook for long-format explainer videos, Twitter for opinion dissemination and Instagram to keep things light and fun.
But how much do all those ads matter? Should candidates and parties force the hard sell on unwitting voters or keep things slow and steady?
Lessons from the past
While political advertising has many nuances, the party slogan or key campaign premise is critical. According to KV Sridhar, global chief creative officer, Hypercollective and Nihilent, there have been a few instances when these slogans have actually tipped a close tie.
The ‘Ab ki baar Modi sarkar’ campaign was one slogan that played a part in the Bharatiya Janta Party’s sweeping win in 2014. “It was also the first time that people voted for a person rather than a party. The slogan did well because it underlined the incumbent PM’s credentials and communicated development goals of the country clearly,” says Sridhar.
Having worked on the winning ‘aam aadmi’ campaign for the Congress in 2004 in his earlier stint with Leo Burnett, Sridhar says the opposition parties could learn a thing or two from the success of that campaign and the party’s strategy against the NDA’s India Shining message. “The campaign was a repositioning for the Congress, moving away from ‘garibi hatao’ to focusing on the middle- and lower-middle classes across urban and rural India. What also helped was that the ‘India Shining’ message alienated a large chunk of the country’s population because it seemed like an elitist statement that resonated better with the wealthy Indian and the foreign tourists,” recounts Sridhar.
Looking back at the 2019 poll campaigns, Ambika Sharma, founder and MD at Pulp Strategy, points out that the winning party managed to get its messaging right. The BJP focussed on nationalism, economic development and PM Modi’s leadership. The party reached out to various demographic segments with a sound media strategy across TV, radio, print, social media and mobile advertising, she says.
The Congress poll slogan of ‘ab hoga nyay’ seemed to address the people’s demands for accountability, but could not convince voters as it lacked a clear vision of how the party planned to achieve this, says Dr Reena Mehta, professor of general management at KJ Somaiya Institute of Management (KJSIM). She adds that the medium should be chosen according to the target segment. While young urban voters can be swayed by digital or new media campaigns, older voters can be influenced by newspaper op-eds.
Experts also warn of the danger of fake news and misinformation via micro-targeted social media messaging. Promoting false narratives can erode trust and undermine a party’s credibility in the long term and much depends on how the platforms concerned detect and deal with fake news, say experts.
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