MUMBAI: Advertising decibels are on the rise in a year when more than Rs 2,000 crore of ad money will be spent by various political parties on poll-related communication. While the Congresskicked off its campaign last Friday on a somewhat controversial note thanks to the ad's tagline, "main nahin, hum (not I, we)", the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is close to finalizing its ad agency to commence its campaign, which will be centered around its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
TOI has learnt that the principal opposition party is zeroing in on McCann Worldgroup, led by lyricist & adman Prasoon Joshi, to handle its creative duties. A WPP agency, Contract Advertising, is also in the fray to grab the hotly contested Rs 400-crore account for the 2014 general elections, said sources who did not want to be named as a formal decision is yet to be taken. While McCann and Contract are in the reckoning for the creative duties for BJP, sources said the media buying mandate is likely to go to Lodestar with other agencies, including WPP's Group M and Sam Balsara's Madison, not having been ruled out completely.
The Congress party, on the other hand, has given its Rs 500-crore account to Dentsu and Taproot while its public relations is being handled by Genesis Burson-Marsteller.
JWT was given to handle the party's outdoor activation activities.
When contacted by TOI, Joshi, executive chairman of McCann Worldgroup India, said as of now his agency has not been picked for any election-related work for any political party. Sources said McCann had also pitched for the Congress account along with a slew of other agencies. A spokesperson from the BJP said they were yet to finalize their agency. Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands, which runs Lodestar UM, said they were not working with the BJP for the general elections.
The 2014 general elections, scheduled to be held around mid-2014, will also see the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal give a fight to Modi and Gandhi. AAP has largely stuck to communicating on social media and use outdoor activations programmes, steering clear of any mass media campaigns for the elections.
Last week, BJP accused the Congress of copying a Modi tagline (Main nahin, hum) from 2011 for its campaign. Congress started the first leg of its campaign with print ads showcasing the party's chief campaign manager Gandhi at the forefront. AICC media head Ajay Maken tweeted on Saturday a picture saying that slogan figured at a mushaira (poetry) event featuring Congress workers in Indore in 2010, much before BJP's "chintan shivir (introspection session)" in Gujarat in 2011.
Besides, the Rs 500-crore ad blitzkrieg which the Congress has planned, the ruling
United Progressive Alliance is parallely running the 'Bharat Nirman' campaign. The Rs 100-crore campaign, being handled by ad agency Percept/H, is run from the budget of the information & broadcasting ministry headed by Manish Tiwari.
BJP close to unveiling 400cr ad blitz for polls - The Times of India