BJP, Congress ready with ad campaigns worth hundreds of crores for LS polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, two of the biggest political parties in the country, could begin their poll campaigns next week, according to top advertising industry sources. 

The Election Commission will announce the polling dates soon, and the model code of conduct could kick in from March 8 or 9. After that, the government will not be able to issue advertisements about various schemes, policies, and initiatives of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Sources in the know said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would remain the face of the BJP campaign and Congress President Rahul Gandhi would lead his party — like they did in 2014. The BJP is expected to spend Rs 500-600 crore ahead of the polls in April. In 2014, the BJP had spent Rs 700 crore in a campaign stretching from February to April-May. The NDA had won more than 300 seats in the 545-strong Lok Sabha.

The duration of the campaign this year will be shorter. The BJP is expected to pull out all the stops; its agency partner is the Ogilvy group. 

In 2014, the BJP had used ad agency Soho Square (now called 82.5 Communications), which is part of the Ogilvy group, as well as McCann Worldgroup’s ad agency TAG for its campaign.  Soho Square had coined taglines such as “Abki Baar Modi Sarkar”, while McCann Worldgroup had released BJP’s anthem called “Saugandh Mitti Ki”.

The Congress, on the other hand, is still finalising its agency partners for its 2019 campaign. With time running out, this is likely to be completed soon.

FCB India and Leo Burnett are in the fray for the Congress account, which is being supervised by Rahul Gandhi. Mumbai Congressman Milind Deora is also part of the team involved in the campaign said sources. 

On BJP’s side, party president Amit Shah and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal are leading the charge, as the pressure to induce top-of-mind recall ahead of the polls grows, said experts.

“Continuity will be a big theme for 2019 versus change in 2014,” said Ambi Parameswaran, founder, brand-building.com. “The ruling party will want to highlight its achievements. The Opposition party will bring to the fore the challenges and problems faced by the people in the past five years.”

In the past one month, the BJP had done precisely that while advertising its government’s various achievements including Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Digital India, etc., said experts. Modi released a tagline, “Namumkin ab mumkin hai”, a fortnight ago to tie in all the various government ads under one theme. 

Agency sources said advertising by the central government and various states where the BJP was in power would have cost nothing else than Rs 600-700 crore over the past one month.  This phase is critical to attract the attention of voters. The second phase, said experts, would be about consolidating these gains and making sure that the BJP remains in the minds of the people.