After Congress and BJP, AAP enters 'outdoor' fray

MUMBAI: Barely days for the city to go to polls, and a party which had hitherto relied on unconventional methods such as word-of-mouth, foot soldiers and dharnas to gain popularity, has finally taken refuge in mainstream advertising, albeit out-of-home (OOH).

Indeed, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its most public face, Arvind Kejriwal, are the latest to find their way to a string of hoardings plastered across Mumbai in the lead-up to voting day on 24 April.

In the hoardings, Kejriwal is seen asking Mumbaikars for votes, alongside slogans in Hindi which read: “Jitne Sitam Karna Hai Kar Lo, Lekin Desh ko Badal kar Rahenge”, “Is baar Imaandaar” et al.

 According to Global Advertisers, which has the mandate for the main political parties, while BJP and Congress are utilizing 17 to 20 per cent and 25 to 27 per cent of the total outdoor hoardings, respectively, AAP is utilizing only 7 to 8 per cent.

In terms of monies spent, “If Congress is spending around Rs 50 crore and BJP about Rs 20 crore on outdoor, AAP, which does not have as much money as BJP and Congress, should be spending much less than Rs 3 to 5 crore. However, it is important to note here that unlike Congress and BJP that are creating a very strong presence through TV and print advertising, AAP’s advertising backbone comprises just outdoor and word-of-mouth,” informs Global Advertisers managing director Sanjeev Gupta.

 For AAP, the outdoor agency is currently focusing on Mumbai’s high-visibility regions such as Worli, Andheri, Dadar and Thane. Despite having been approached at the nth hour, the agency’s media planning and buying teams have selected some of the best sites for the party.

In this election year, Indian advertising is expected to witness an overall boost of around Rs 1,000 crore from political advertising, with outdoor advertising expected to see a 10 per cent rise within that. “We at Global expect to witness as much as a 30 per cent rise in our revenues just from political advertising,” says Gupta.

While TV and print exude national presence, outdoor is very important for parties to reach out to masses who stay in the country’s hinterland. “And since the 2014 elections are being considered to be one of the toughest elections of all time, parties are more than willing to dig deep into their pockets and spend on advertising, especially outdoor, since their vote bank lies within these tier 2, 3, 4 markets,” Gupta points out.

 

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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 conceptualized, planned and executed. 

These factors are translating into good business. Our media properties played a prominent part in campaigns of BJP, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. 

What are some of the requirements from clients?

All requirements from clients ultimately 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 offer our clients outdoor sites/ hoardings and other media to help them achieve their goals. We hand-hold 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.   

What kind 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 are being 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, there 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 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.

A question you did not ask: 

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 behavior 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. Outdoor advertising has taken up this new challenge and done an excellent job of it.

 

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Election tracker: Battling it, out-of-home

 
MUMBAI: This general election may be the first among many, where media has been so extensively (and blatantly) used by political parties and their prime ministerial hopefuls.

Far from fighting shy of marketing themselves, the main players – Congress and BJP – have spent nearly Rs 400 to Rs 500 crore each on publicity campaigns. An additional Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 crore will be spent on related activities such as banners, hoardings, organization of public meetings and transportation of key campaigners, among others. Not surprisingly, media agencies estimate around 2 to 2.5 per cent of overall advertisement spends this year to come from elections.

One can switch a channel, turn a page or surf away, but hoardings are hard to ignore or even miss. And this is the reason why of the whole advertising budget, parties are spending approximately 10-15 per cent of the total budget i.e. close to Rs300-400 crore on OOH, if not less, as per industry sources.

Possibly, with advertising rates on general entertainment channels (GECs) on television being prohibitive and posters having been banned in several cities of the country, outdoor remains the only viable option for election propaganda as it is cost-effective and has high reach as well. So you have hoardings of calling for a ‘Modi Sarkar’ or boating of ‘Bharat Nirman’ with NamO and RaGa staring down at you from the most non-descript locations in the country. What’s more, they have illumination for better visibility at night.

With elections just round the corner, outdoor advertising has picked up significantly, mostly fuelled by political parties, which is quite unlike the usual scenario where outdoor advertising is more prominent during the second half of the year.

Speaking of the growing appeal of OOH, Madison OOH Media Group CEO Arminio Ribeiro, says: “Given the flexibility of this medium in terms of narrow- and broad- casting and its localization and rapid awareness build-up benefits, outdoor has appealed to political parties to get their message across to the electorate through its multiple formats.”

In order to get the best quality hoarding, tapping the most crowded route through buses or railway has certainly increased the competition. Everyone is trying to avail the benefit of this golden opportunity and those who have the diverse range of inventories are the main gainers.
  Sanjeev Gupta, managing director of Global Advertisers, which has been roped in for outdoor by both Congress and BJP, says, “With changing trends, political parties have also changed their approach and have become more professional. Therefore, our media plan included a mix of outdoor inventories to expand the reach of these campaigns and we expect to see more demand for outdoor in the coming months.”

While Postercope Asia Pacific regional director, Haresh Nayak, says: “Tier II and Tier III markets have been the focus for the last year, continuing to grow this year as well, showing deep penetration in rural areas to create brand awareness.”

 Indeed, the FICCI-KPMG 2014 report finds that the OOH industry has grown by 5.5 per cent from CAGR (2007 to 2013), what with clients from real estate, telecom, media, auto, and now politics, driving it forward.

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