Outdoor
landscape in India often witnesses sites of political promotions which revolve
around birthday wishes, welcome notes for national leaders, festival greetings
and of course displays during elections. It’s a general belief that all such
hoardings – around areas such as railway station, markets and bus stands – are
force fitted. But that’s not always the case.
Political outdoor initiatives do
look out for agencies; they do follow a systematic approach for its execution.
For instance, Outdoor Advertising Professionals (OAP) worked on the outdoor
media planning with another agency for one of the leading national parties in
the last Lok Sabha elections.
Abhijeet Sengupta, Chief Executive Officer,
OAP pointed out an interesting fact, “You will be surprised by the amount being
spent on each of the campaigns. At least on the outdoor front, it will dwarf
many large corporate campaigns. But unfortunately lot of the monies being spent
doesn’t translate into effective outdoor campaign and there are various reasons
to that which I do not intend getting into.”
If political advertisements used in USA have to be compared with the ones of
India – they are poles apart. Americans are used to metaphors and various
figures of speech. They expect campaigns to challenge their intellect. Most of
the American political campaigns are attack advertisements. That’s why they are
humorous and often below the belt. The biggest difference is that such American
campaigns are not regulated by any regulatory body, nor do they have any rules
and guidelines like in India.
Rising
demand
From local election to national level poll, political
parties and their leaders are increasingly using the outdoor media. This is
mainly because it turns out to be a cost-effective medium of spreading
awareness.
Sanjeev Gupta, Managing Director, Global Advertisers said, “We have
witnessed increasing demand of hoardings in last few years from national and
local political parties and their leaders. However, these are small duration
campaigns. Now political parties and leaders are exploring new ways of
connecting with their followers and becoming more professional in reaching out
to their voters.”
There lies a huge business opportunity in political advertising for OOH players.
It is a sector that needs to be unlocked with simplicity and smart planning.
Problem
areas
Creatives of political
advertising in India have often been subjected to mockery. The design and
graphics element of their artwork needs to be improvised. They should also
focus on quality of pictures, colour scheme and text size.
Commenting
on this, Atul Shrivastava, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media elaborated,
“Good political advertising is possible, only if it is planned in a consistent
manner. Content and creativity can be unlimited if there is a plan to promote a
political party and its agenda. Unfortunately, it is thought of and actioned
when elections are announced. In the situation, only possible creative is to
show the photo of the party’s candidate with local appeal. We may call it
shabby, but it is not by default; it is by design.”
“If one party’s advertisement is displayed under the corporation controlled by
some other party, the concessionaire gets soft notice to remove. If one doesn’t
react, action could be very damaging to one’s business interest. The leaders
are not very committed on payment schedule. The choice of locations is so
remote and interior that at times we don’t get any legal media unit there,”
added Shrivastava.
Outdoor
landscape in India often witnesses sites of political promotions which revolve
around birthday wishes, welcome notes for national leaders, festival greetings
and of course displays during elections. It’s a general belief that all such
hoardings – around areas such as railway station, markets and bus stands – are
force fitted. But that’s not always the case.
Political
outdoor initiatives do look out for agencies; they do follow a systematic
approach for its execution. For instance, Outdoor Advertising Professionals
(OAP) worked on the outdoor media planning with another agency for one of the
leading national parties in the last Lok Sabha elections.
Sanjeev
Gupta, Managing Director, Global Advertisers says “We have been
approached by several event companies for the promotion of their new
year party. We have executed an extensive OOH campaign for Essel world
which has effectively increased their sales. Besides this, we have also
received bookings from hotels, resorts, theme parks and lounges for
their new year party celebration.” 
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