MUMBAI: Political discourse in India, especially for the past two elections, has been heavily dominated by media and advertisements. During the election season, political parties remain active across channels to attract voters.

While digital played a key role in each political party’s marketing strategy this year, a latest TAM AdEx report shows that an equal emphasis was paid to television as well. An indexed growth of 8 per cent in terms of ad insertions by political parties was recorded in the period between January and May 2019 as compared to the same period in 2014.

The April-May period, which is when the voting occurred, remained the crucial time for political advertisers. 90 per cent of political ads were inserted on TV during this period in 2019. The number was 80 per cent in 2014. Compared to May'14, there was a three-fold rise in the insertions of political ads in May'19.

Radio also saw a similar trend with 17 per cent indexed growth in ad insertions during Jan-May’19, as compared to the same period during the previous general elections. Although a drop in political ads was seen in the print medium in the same period in 2019 compared to 2014, May'19 witnessed 77 per cent growth in ad insertions of political ads as compared to May'14.