Recently, the Indian National Congress (INC) handed Mindshare its US$15 million media account for the election, highlighting how political parties have begun to value media. This is said to be the first time a political party in India has appointed a media agency. The party’s $15 million creative is currently split between JWT, Percept and Crayons.
In Indonesia, meanwhile, Golkar became one of the first parties in the country to call a media pitch. The party’s account is worth $13 million. The pitch, which attracted 23 agencies, saw the account go to Activate, a local media agency. The decision to hire a specialist media agency marks a break from past practice, which saw party reps turn up at Indonesia’s TV stations with cash to buy airtime.
According to Ashutosh Srivastava, Asia-Pacific leader of Mindshare, politicians have started to use media specialists. He points to the ‘India shining’ campaign by the BJP party in 2004, which backfired because it ignored rural India. “Parties are seeking professional help in planning and buying since they realise it’s not only about buying media. It is about understanding different segments of voters and finding what kind of a message should be delivered on what kind of channel,” he said.
Meanwhile, Joseph Tan, who heads Lowe Indonesia, believes the country’s parties now have shrewd marketers within them who realise that parties need to be marketed like a brand. “Political parties are not only appointing a media agency but also a brand agency, PR consultants, image consultants, basically everything that a brand requires. They realise that Indonesia is a diverse country and they need an element of versatility to appeal to voters from different segments.”
Nirvik Singh, Asia-Pacific CEO of Grey, which has handled several party accounts in India, maintains that parties have always spent a lot on branding, but agrees that this year’s campaigns have seen more being spent on media.
In Indonesia, overall adspend for the parliamentary election on 9 April doubled compared with the last election. The parties in the country spent about 650 billion rupiah (US$56 million) from January 2008 until March 2009, according to agency sources in the market. The top three parties contributed 50 per cent of the adspend, the rest claimed by the 35 remaining parties.
In India, where the election will be held in five phases between 16 April and 13 May, the situation is similar, with total adspend on the election likely to be $156 million, double the spend in 2004. INC and BJP will spend $55 million on advertising. INC is rumoured to have spent $200,000 to secure the rights to use the song ‘Jai ho’ (‘Victory’) from the film Slumdog Millionaire for its campaign.
The biggest beneficiary of this spend is likely to be print and TV. In India, print is forecast to receive up to 60 per cent of political adspend, while broadcasters are likely to take a share of around 20 per cent. In Indonesia, TV is likely to be the lead medium.
Following the US elections, parties are also beginning to explore new media channels. In India, mobile SMS is increasingly used to rally supporters. A senior BJP leader, LK Advani, has started a successful blog, and it is not uncommon to find younger leaders in India using Twitter. Srivavstava believes parties are using digital in a “basic way” and predicts mobile will become a big channel.
In Indonesia, the use of the web is more limited. An agency head says that he is disappointed by the inertia for the use of new media but thinks that for pragmatic political parties targeting rural masses, digital might not make much sense. “At the end of the day, the middle class that has access to new media is not interested in elections and the rural folks are happy with dangdut [a traditional dance] performances.”
See Opinion
