Indiantelevision.com Team

(12 March 2009 11:45 pm)

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will use the FM radio a lot more than the other media platforms even as it kicks off its ad campaign for the general elections on 16 March.

Says BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh, “I have asked my media buying agency Frank Simoes-Tag to create a balance media buying chart, which while not being too expensive will give us the maximum reach. FM radio will play the most important role for us as it covers 280 constituencies, reaching extreme interiors and giving the widest possible reach.”

The party, which is projecting LK Advani as their prime ministerial candidate, will also be concentrating on online campaign as well as on SMSes to contact the voters apart from the usual mediums like television and outdoor media (OOH).

Singh adds that the party has already introduced lkadvani.in which has become an instant hit.

When asked if the economic downturn has affected the party’s campaign plans, Singh replies, “We are definitely feeling the pinch. This year we have not received corporate funding in large numbers. But we don’t blame them.”

Meanwhile, it seems that the party has drawn a clue from its last campaign, ‘India Shining’ which backfired at the time of the 2004 elections.

Going with the mood of economic downturn, BJP will this time centre its campaign on the theme of strong leader with the slogan, ‘Majbooth neta, nirnayak sarkar’ created by its creative agency, Utopia.

“Our survey told us that the people of this country want a strong leader and a decisive government. When it came to NDA, people named three prime ministerial candidates - Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh - whereas in case of NDA, people were very clear about Advani as the right prime ministerial candidate. So it gave a clear picture that people want a leader who not only is capable of handling his or her party affairs but is also the decision maker. We, thus, decided to come out with the theme, ‘Majbooth neta, nirnayak sarkar’, which we feel is very apt,” notes Singh.

The party has also tested - through a survey conducted on about 30,000 people from A, B and C group districts across the country - various other slogans like ‘Damdaar sarkar’ or ‘Behtar sarkar’, which were however not well-received,

When quizzed about Congress’s decision to buy the right of ‘Jai ho,’ Singh retorts: “I would like to give my best wishes to Congress and their decision of borrowing themes from Bollywood. They tried it in Gujarat by using ‘Chak de’ at the time of 2007 assembly elections and they failed. Now they want to say ‘Jai ho’ to Congress and I am sure this time also they will fail as people are grim about the future with the way the government has failed to give appropriate stimulus. So it will be ‘Har ho’ for Congress this year.”

BJP has hired two advertising agencies - Frank Simoes-Tag and Utopia - to plant its campaign on television, FM radio channels and the print media.