What was the difference in the manner in which different political parties approached their outdoor campaigns during the Lok Sabha elections of 2014?

I will not talk about specific political parties because they are all our clients. Our strategy was been to coordinate very closely with clients, offer competitive rates, select media carefully and dish up the right media mix. Above all, we were 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.
-Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers, www.globaladvertisers.in

Were the outdoor campaigns of political parties managed or handled differently in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 than they were earlier?

There were indeed a number of firsts in these elections. More mobile vans with mounted hoardings were used in this campaign 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. We could deliver thanks to our super competent media team, planners and mounters. You can see that the approach has worked for parties that handled it well.
- Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers,www.globaladvertisers.in

In monetary terms, what boost did your business get during this 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.

Though 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.


-Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers, www.globaladvertisers.in

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 focused 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.

-Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers, www.globaladvertisers.in

How did political parties plan their outdoor campaigns for Lok Sabha elections in 2014?

Electoral campaigns seek to accomplish one task - 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: 1) introduction 2) Meeting the voters 3) Information about candidate/party USP and 4) Getting voters to choose the candidate on the big day. At every stage, we offered our clients outdoor sites/ hoardings and other media to help them achieve their goals. We hand-held the client through the campaign, at every step from concept, to campaign. From printing to mounting of flex, and ultimately to providing post-campaign feedback.  

-Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers, www.globaladvertisers.in

How important was outdoor advertising in these elections?

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, the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 were particularly special because the campaigns were managed with unprecedented professionalism and there was a marked corporate flavour in the way the campaigns were being conceptualized, planned and executed.

Our media properties played a prominent part in campaigns of nearly all major political parties. The ones that spend more and strategized more have reaping rich dividends in terms of vote share as well as seats. 
- Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers, www.globaladvertisers.in