How are outdoor
advertising campaigns for political parties planned? And how was this election
season different from the previous editions?
As the election campaigning draws to a close in Mumbai,
advertising across political parties is reaching a fever pitch. Lok Sabha 2014
has seen some of the most aggressive advertising campaigns from the country’s
two principal parties – the Congress and the BJP. It seems that every available
space, whether on print or online or on the air, has been taken up by election
advertising.
The Metrognome
spoke to Global Advertisers’ Managing Director, Sanjeev Gupta (in pic on left),
to find out more about the business of election advertising in the outdoor
space.
Excerpts from the interview:
How does the election
season benefit a business such as yours?
Outdoor media is the most important channel of communication
for political campaigns, which mainly rely on political marches, rallies,
morchas, dharnas, and door-to-door campaigns to get the message across. All
forms of political campaigning happen outdoors. Moreover, 2014 is particularly
special because the campaigns are managed with unprecedented professionalism
and there is a marked corporate flavour in the way the campaigns are being
conceptualised, planned and executed.
These factors are translating into good business. Our media
properties played a prominent part in campaigns of nearly all major political
parties.
What are some of the
requirements from clients?
All requirements from clients ultimately seek to accomplish
one task – of scoring with the voters. They want advertising to be visible to
voters. They want the media to work its magic at the right time.
Typically, an election campaign follows four stages: One,
the introduction. Two, meeting the voters. Three, spreading information about
the candidate/party’s USP. While the fourth stage is getting voters to choose
the candidate on the big day.
At every stage, companies like ours offer our clients
outdoor sites/ hoardings and other media to help them achieve their goals. We
must hand-hold the client through the campaign, at every step, from printing to
mounting of flex, and ultimately, to providing post-campaign feedback.
What kinds of
strategies are required to stand out among hundreds of other outdoor campaigns?
Our strategy has been to coordinate very closely with
clients, offer competitive rates, select media carefully and dish up the right
media mix. Above all, we have been on our feet for 11 hours for the last three
months to accommodate changes in plan, content and sites.
That said, the secrets of standing out in a crowded
marketplace are not really new.
Be clear about what you set out to achieve. Be better at
service, and with the quality of billboards and other media. Be different from
everyone in the way you frame your message, offer tailor-made solutions that
work within the budget and out-innovate the competition.
What are some of the
new types of outdoor advertising seen this election season?
More mobile vans with mounted hoardings were used in this
season than ever before. Parties used concepts like ‘chai pe charcha’ and
‘e-chaupal’ and successfully harnessed cutting edge technology and offered it
to voters in different parts of the country, which created quite a buzz.
Even with traditional outdoor advertising, the complimentary
role of online and mobile media has increased several-fold. These changes hint
at the shape of things to come.
This time, special creative content was designed for
specific locations for better impact. There were cut-outs, LED, back-lit, 3-D
and digital displays. The power of outdoor advertising was displayed like never
before in this election. You can see this from the unusually high voter turnout
this time.
In monetary terms,
what is the kind of boost that your business gets in election season?
All things remaining same, this election season, we expect
business to grow by 50 per cent compared to the same period in a non-election
year. This is, of course, a rough estimate.
On an average, how much do political parties spend on
outdoor advertising?
I cannot discuss figures without explicit permission of a
client but if you know the campaign expenses that are made public, you can
safely conclude that outdoors gets anywhere between 40 to 50 per cent of the
total outlay in a political campaign.
How does outdoor
score over other media when it comes to election campaigns?
People who step out regularly either to commute, shop, visit
friends or places of worship are more likely to step out to vote on the big
day, too. It therefore makes more sense to invest in outdoor advertising than
any other medium because the target demographic (voters) and the medium
(billboards and other outdoor media) and the desired outcome (influencing voter
behaviour in favour of a particular candidate/party on the day of voting) are
1) in the same geographical area, 2) are likely to be the same people (people who
are outdoors on other days are also likely to vote on election day), and 3) the
campaign, message, brand positioning can be tailored to address the specific
demographic in that particular area.
Traditional election
campaigns focussed on communicating achievements. This has changed as this time
the efforts were on convincing voters and not merely communicating. The entire
outdoor media fraternity – vendors, creative minds, agencies, mounters – have
taken up this new challenge and have gone ahead to do an excellent job of it.
