Mktg - India;Rs 200cr media splurge for elections

Shilpa Phadnis

BJP and Congress are said to be spending Rs 100 crore each on their advertising and PR campaigns in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls

BANGALORE: The 2009 Lok Sabha Elections will be an ‘ad’venture of sorts for the politicos.

Even as the poll pundits are busy number crunching on the seat matrix, political parties are believed to have earmarked Rs 200 crore for advertising and PR campaigns over the next six months to sway voters in their favour.

Mukesh Gupta, managing director of Graphisads Pvt Ltd, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are likely to spend over Rs 100 crore each for the forthcoming poll.

“BJP was our client in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Though it is very early to talk about the specifics, I think their campaign this time around will have a mixed bag of traditional and new media and will highlight the failure of the present government. For the forthcoming polls, I think both BJP and Congress will spend over Rs 100 crore each,” he said.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and campaign committee head, said his party has had informal discussions and will soon call for a formal media pitch from agencies to tom-tom its 3i communication strategy harping on ‘inflation, internal security and incompetence’ of the UPA government.

Many contenders are believed to be in the running for the account, including Graphisads, which is said to have made presentations to the BJP.

BJP’s run-up to the media pitch comes close on the heels of Congress shortlisting Crayons Advertising to handle its creatives for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Naqvi said BJP would focus on below-the-line activities such as public meetings, booth level mobilisation and rallies. “We will also focus on internet and new media to reach out to a larger section. There are many agencies in the fray for our account. We will shortlist the agency and make an official announcement this December,” he said. Naqvi, however, refused to divulge any detail about the size of the account. BJP is seeking to make a cut this time after its ‘India Shining’ dampener in the last election.

Ajay Chandwani, executive director, PerceptH, said communication strategy was very important. “What went wrong with the India Shining campaign was that it was targeted at India Inc, which forms a significant faction. But it doesn’t represent the real India as ground realities are different,” he said.

Though poll campaigns have gained traction only in 2003, Congress was one of the earliest parties to have engaged a professional agency for its election campaign. “The party had assigned its creative duties to Rediffusion for the Rajiv Gandhi campaign,” Chandwani said.

He said the focus this time will be on the internet. “Big numbers go into outdoor, print and television in terms of activity. I think in the non-traditional media, internet will take the top slot,” he said