Mktg - India;Congress enters digital space with Rajasthan election

Suvi Dogra

Having shortlisted advertising agency Crayons to handle its campaign for the coming elections, the Congress, India’s oldest political party, has decided to make it a modern one.

While it has used traditional tools of communication for campaigning in the past, this time the party has embraced new media starting from the state of Rajasthan in a bid to connect with the tech-savvy citizens as well as the young voters . The party entered the digital space today by launching its first internet campaign for Rajasthan.

The campaign has been designed by Crayons and is being executed by Ignitee India, an online marketing company. “We realise that internet and mobile phone services are modern day tools for effective communication and we will use them widely for campaigning,” said Satyendra Raghav, media convenor for the Congress in Rajasthan.

Under the campaign, two video ads have been released across sites such as Yahoo, Rediff, MSN and NDTV, among others. “One video is specifically for the Rajasthan circle, while the other is a general one. The videos will help people understand the importance of these elections and to spread awareness amongst its audience,” Atul Hegde, the CEO of Ignitee India, said. Further, under its social marketing optimisation plan, the party has rolled out the campaign to popular social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. “This medium is commendable in its versatility from blogging, commenting and debating on an array of topics related to the Rajasthan elections to uploading videos for the youth. It allows a one-on-one channel with the voter which is very effective,” Hegde added.

Industry pegs the total number of internet users in Rajasthan at around 2 million with Jaipur accounting for around 650,000 users. “We will also use folk music videos and upload literature on Congress leaders under the campaign,” Raghav said. Given the outreach of internet as a medium, most ad agencies said that in order to communicate the political agenda of a party, it is important to move at various fronts together.

Blogs, web communities and social networking sites seem to fit the bill. “On a national scale, consider 37 million internet users at any given time, it is a sizable audience one can reach out to. By using simple display advertising, one can capture at least 30 per cent of the base which again is a good number. Agencies need to move beyond classic marketing,” said Prasanth Mohanachandran, executive director (digital services), OgilvyOne & Neo@Ogilvy.

The Congress has also deployed mobile vans with big screen and projectors that will screen a special film prepared by the party. The film highlights the achievements of the Congress-led government at the Centre and also draws attention to the failures of the Vasundhara Raje government. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party too has not left any stone unturned. It has already created a computer database of over 150,000 booth workers, besides unleashing its campaign via mobiles and FM radio.

The 200-member state Assembly goes to the polls on December 4, where the Bharatiya Janata Party has 121 legislators and the Congress 53.