Pak Elections Ad Spending Boosts Media Profits; Buys Favorable Coverage

[RiazHaq]

Fear of violence has reduced the number of traditional mass rallies this year, particularly in Balochistan, KP and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. Instead, the political parties and candidates are increasingly relying on electronic and social media to reach out to voters in preparation for May 11 general elections in the country.

Pakistan Elections 2013 Signs
Top channels are charging as much as $2,200 a minute for prime time, a source in the advertising business told AFP, adding that up to $300,000 is being spent every day by three major parties: cricket hero Imran Khan's PTI, former Prime Minister Bhutto's PPP and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's PML (N).

Insiders say that politicians are using money to buy support of media owners and journalists. A TV journalist told AFP that his bosses were favoring Imran Khan by ordering staff to cover all of his public meetings and rallies, because PTI had paid so much more money for ads. "Special teams and the best equipment has been deployed for this purpose," he told AFP on condition of anonymity. "When we cover other politicians and send reports, they are trashed," he added.

Another popular TV anchor, Sana Bucha, quit her job at Dunya TV saying she would not sell her integrity. "This elections in Pak, every1 - channel and anchor - is up for sale. I refuse to put a price tag on myself,"she tweeted.

In addition to the use of television, there is a lot tweeting, texting and facebook campaigning being done to appeal to the younger voters who could turn out in record numbers to tilt the elections in Imran Khan's PTI's favor.

The 2013 elections will be the first to see the full impact of Pakistan's media and telecom revolution which began on President Musharraf's watch. The number of TV channels rose from one in 2000 to over 100 in 2008. In this period, the cell phone penetration exceeded 50% and Internet access became available to over 10% of the population.

To conclude this post, let me share with you an excerpt of a report by BBC's Lyse Doucet:

"Pakistan can be an unpredictable place. But in a chequered history that has kept lurching from crises to coups, one event has kept coming back, with reassuring certainty - elections. I've covered almost every one of them since 1988 when martial law abruptly ended and a people who fought for democracy directed their energies and enthusiasm towards the battle for ballots. What boisterous campaigns there've been - massive rallies that packed stadiums and fields, convoys of vehicles snaking, horns blaring, through villages and down highways - a chaotic carnival in every constituency. But elections in Pakistan can't be like that anymore. It's simply too dangerous. Not a day goes by without a report of an attack by one of many armed groups on a politician, or a public space, or the police".

As the onslaught of Taliban's bombs and bullets against people's ballots unfolds, their main targets in ANP, PPP and MQM are continuing to affirm their faith in the ballots by defying the Taliban terrorists.

Haq's Musings: Election Ads Money Buys Favorable Media Coverage in Pakistan

 

[RiazHaq]

Here's a link to an interactive map of National Assembly constituencies, districts, candidates, voters, etc for Pakistan Elections 2013:

Pakistan Election 2013 Map

 

[RiazHaq]

Here's a France24 story on virtual electioneering in Pakistan:

...More than 30 TV screens line the walls of the room, broadcasting continuous coverage of the election campaign. This is not a TV studio – although it certainly looks like one. It’s the headquarters of the MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement) party, one of the most powerful parties in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh.
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"We try to minimize our appearances while optimizing our visibility through Twitter and Facebook," said Faisal Sabzwari, an MQM candidate who regularly receives letters threatening him with death.

To do this, the MQM has increased the size of its communications team. "At first, we had 80 members in the department and about a thousand volunteers in our constituencies,” said Sabzwari. “But over the past two months, with the upsurge in violence, we have recruited nearly 2,000 additional volunteers."

It’s a large network that enables the party to conduct one of the most active social media campaigns. According to Sabzwari, the MQM has broken the record for the number of tweets posted per day. "In April, we tweeted up to 19,000 messages per day - this is a record for Pakistan,” said Sabzwari.

The PPP, the party of outgoing President Asif Ali Zardari, has also been forced to keep a low profile. "In the last elections, we organized up to ten public meetings per day in Karachi,” recounts Taj Haider, the PPP’s general secretary for Sindh province. “Today, to campaign, we sit behind our computers.”

Indeed, it is through television commercials or emails that the most threatened PPP candidates communicate with their constituents and transmit their instructions to thousands of activists....
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Here's a Bloomberg story on Pak elections:

Movie makers, celebrities and cafe owners are appealing to Pakistanis to vote in the May 11 general election to help pull the nation out of a slump caused by chronic energy shortages, poor governance and terrorism.
Chambaili, a film that opened in cinemas on April 26, depicts a young population bullied by the ruling elite. Television spots feature 29 actors, singers and sportsmen urging people to cast ballots. Espresso, a local chain of coffeehouses, is offering a free coffee on election day to those bearing an ink-marked finger that shows they voted, and Ginsoy, a Chinese restaurant in Karachi, is advertising a 25 percent discount to voters.
The messages are aimed at Pakistan’s youth, many of whom will be voting for the first time. Over one-fourth of voters are under 35, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan, and 87 percent of young adults are unhappy with the current political system, a December survey by advertising agency JWT Pakistan found.
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Security threats have forced major political forces, including Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, to rely on advertising as they avoid public rallies which have targeted by Taliban insurgents. Nationwide violence since April, including attacks on election candidates, has left at least 114 people dead and 470 injured.
The Peoples Party is projected to spend the most on advertising followed by Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf, according to Dialogue Pakistan, a media advisory company in Karachi.
The PPP’s campaign shows images of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto’s grave, while Khan’s party is running video clips of its leader, who attained hero status by leading Pakistan to victory in the 1992 cricket world cup, speaking from his hospital bed after suffering fractures in a fall during a campaign stop in Lahore on May 7....

Pakistan Actors Join Baristas in Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign - Bloomberg