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A blooming 'lotus' welcomes when you board the Metro; a big 'hand' in billboard stands tall while you wait at traffic point and a power wielding 'broom' asks you to vote for change -- political parties armed with striking ads are pulling all strings to reach out to voters.
And in this poll blitzkrieg, though television, outdoor media, social media and street theater have become the key battlefields, radio has also been 're-invented' with various attractive poll-related ads and jingles.
With estimated listnership of 158 million in the country, the political parties are seizing the reach and hiring private firms for content development of radio jingles and ads to woo the voters.
Out of 158 million, 106 million listeners tune to FM radio stations. There are 245 private FM stations in India across 86 cities, including 10 in the national capital.
The "prime time" slots of 7-11 am and 5-9 pm which register maximum listenership for the radio is now bombarded with political advertisements.
The radio jingles timed from 30 seconds to 3 minutes are being played in every ad break, sometimes cutting the time allotted for songs.
"We provide strategic campaigning ideas to our clients. Along with designing the advertisement, we also look after the implementation and releasing part. If a national party wants to campaign in a local area, we suggest the effective use of the media there," says Pankaj Sharma, Associate Vice President, I Broad 7 agency that creates ad content for radio.
The agency is currently working on BJP's official anthem for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections titled 'Saugandh'-a pledge to the nation.
