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Tag: General Elections 2019

  • BJP tops political advertisers chart on Google; Congress ranked 6th

    BJP tops political advertisers chart on Google; Congress ranked 6th

    MUMBAI: Ahead of the general elections 2019, BJP has topped the list of political advertisers on Google. It has recorded an advertisement spent share of around 32 per cent. Rival Congress stands further in the queue at the sixth spot with a meagre 0.14 per cent share. This has been revealed by the internet giant's Indian Transparency Report released today.

    The report also mentions that political parties and their affiliates have spent Rs 3.76 crore on advertisements since 19 February 2019.

    The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the top advertiser with a total advertisement expense of Rs 1.21 crore, accounting for around 32 per cent of the total advertisement expenses on Google, it said. Congress was ranked sixth with total expenditure on advertisement of Rs 54,100 on Google.

    BJP was followed by Andhra Pradesh's Jagan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party, which spent a total of Rs 1.04 crore on advertisements, according to the report.

    Pammi Sai Charan Reddy, another advertiser, spent Rs 26,400 to promote YSR Congress Party candidates.

    Pramanya Strategy Consulting, which was promoting the Telugu Desham Party (TDP) and its chief Chandra Babu Naidu, was ranked third with an advertisement expenditure of Rs 85.25 lakh, the report said.

    Digital Consulting Pvt Ltd, another entity that also promoted Naidu and his party, was ranked fourth with total spending of Rs 63.43 lakh.

    Google also said that it blocked advertisements of four of 11 political advertisers due to a violation of its ad policy.

  • Facebook takes down 700 fake pages ahead of elections

    Facebook takes down 700 fake pages ahead of elections

    MUMBAI: Social media network Facebook, in its first big crackdown ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, has taken down around 700 pages associated with various political parties in India. The global giant cited “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” for removing the pages over four separate takedowns.

    Out of the accounts taken down from Facebook and Instagram, 687 were linked to individuals associated with an IT Cell of the Indian National Congress (INC), while 15 belonged to an Indian IT firm, Silver Touch that usually handles pages for NDA.

    In a blogpost, Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher stated that the pages were taken down based on their behaviour, not the content they posted. He wrote, “We are constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behaviour because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re taking down these pages and accounts based on their behaviour, not the content they posted. In each case detailed below, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action.”

    Facebook further revealed that an advertisement amount of around $39,000 had been spent on the 687 accounts linked with the Congress between August 2014 and March 2019, while the 13 accounts linked with Silver Touch had spent $70,000 from June 2014 to February 2019.

    However, none of the official accounts of either BJP or Congress have been affected by the takedown.

  • TV sees 53% dip in political ad insertions as compared to 2014: TAM AdEx

    TV sees 53% dip in political ad insertions as compared to 2014: TAM AdEx

    MUMBAI: For almost three decades, TV has remained the preferred choice for political parties to advertise during the poll seasons, given its mass outreach.

    However, despite leading the charts in terms of ad insertions made on any traditional medium, TV has seen an indexed dip of 83 per cent in ad insertions made during the period of 1 January to 16 March 2019 as compared to the same period during 2014 polls.

    The findings have been shared by TAM AdEx in its latest stats of political ad insertions made this year. While TV accounted for the highest ad insertions during the 5th and the 11th week of 2019 as compared to radio and print, it fared relatively lower otherwise.

    Interestingly, radio showed a striking growth as a medium since 2014, as it noted a 14 per cent growth in ad insertions. Like TV, print also saw a dip in ad insertions this year, showing an indexed sink of 9 per cent.

    Leading the bill in the political advertisers list is, unsurprisingly, the ruling party BJP holding a 53 per cent share in the combined ad insertions across TV, print, and radio. Following it is the rival Congress, but with a considerably lower share of 14 per cent.

    Other parties in the list are Telugu Desam (6 per cent), Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (3 per cent), and AIADMK (3 per cent).

    The general election is scheduled to be held in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019. The counting of the votes and declaration of the results will happen on 23 May.

  • Digital agency execs approve stricter social media control for upcoming general election

    Digital agency execs approve stricter social media control for upcoming general election

    MUMBAI: Digital media has taken the world by storm. The last elections of the two biggest democracies of the world – India and the US – showed the power of efficient digital campaigns in political battles. However, as easy as it is to use social media platforms for campaigning, it is equally capable of being misused.

    With the general elections of India just a month away, the doubt about the power of programmatic advertising on election results is obviously bothering everyone. The involvement of Facebook in the manipulation of election results in the US only thickens the clouds of uncertainty.

    Indiantelevision.com asked a few people in the industry what these measures would mean to the political parties and the election process. Ethinos Digital Marketing MD Siddharth Hegde said, "This is a much-needed move. Most countries across the world already have such policies in place and this will be a first for India for its forthcoming elections. We are likely to see more transparent conversations and campaigns and a decrease in the number of companies/ pseudo-individuals who were earlier running fake campaigns. Fake news has been a huge challenge for social media and such policies will serve as a huge deterrent.”

    To assuage growing criticism from users and investors, global digital media giants, Facebook, Twitter, and Google recently announced new policies to make political advertising more transparent and reliable. Measures like not allowing anonymous ads to run on user feed, making the acquisition of a pre-certificate issued by the Election Commission of India or a source it authorises and getting valid authorisations are a bid to solve a few of these problems.

    TRA Research CEO N Chandramouli called for stronger governmental control on false information. He said, “The ability to manipulate voters with messages that create fear, uncertainty and doubt (known as FUD in communication) has grown manifold after the proliferation of social media. Such messages polarise voters with strong, often inflammatory messages that seem to audiences to be from authentic sources. The need for all social media regulation at a governmental level on areas of misinformation and false information is necessary. This is especially needed when elections and other important events are due in a country, but also needed in all other times when incorrectly motivated citizens can be aroused by false news to cause harm to their own country and society.”

    On the other hand, Monk Media Networks founder and CEO Ashish Patkar felt the measures are being implemented too late. He said, “We are heading into an era where a Facebook 'Like' today will be an equivalent of an EVM machine button tomorrow. Social media on the positive side has politically engaged the millennial generation which has till now stayed away from voting but on the flip side, the Us V/s Them debate is being fuelled by fake media at all levels. The new controls by Facebook, Google, and Twitter is a small start towards putting out endorsed and verified messages but, frankly, I believe it is too little too late. In terms of spending, the official spending will go down but the unaccounted spends through supporter accounts and influencer accounts will continue unabated and in my view actually go up.”

    With over 556 million Indians on the internet this time around, the spectacle will be one to witness as to how political parties harness the power of the medium while at the same time ensure its fair usage.

  • Programmatic advertising and political campaigns: The Mahagathbandhan for general elections 2019

    Programmatic advertising and political campaigns: The Mahagathbandhan for general elections 2019

    MUMBAI: Programmatic advertising is revolutionising the advertising industry. Programmatic ad spends accounted for a whopping 90 per cent of total spends by Fortune 500 brands worldwide in 2017 and has evidently taken centre stage of the digital advertising industry today. The ecosystem is on a steady rise in India as well and a number of brands are leveraging the reach it provides them within the consumer heartland based on efficient integration of their products via automated processes using codes and algorithms.

    With the general elections just a few months away, the political parties are also using this trend to attract the voters to their vote banks. Indiantelevision.com interacted with a few industry insiders to understand what programmatic advertising means to the political parties and what impact it may or may not have on the upcoming polls.

    Why programmatic?

    “Through the use of its unique targeting capabilities and advanced data crunching techniques, programmatic advertising is the perfect solution for politicians to reach the right voters. Voters can be targeted as per different criteria like – gender, age, location, party affiliation, political ideals, financial status, ownership, business, education and so on. Programmatic advertising facilitates crafting a data-driven campaign strategy. This helps to reach only those voters that have a possibility to vote in favour. This helps to reduce inefficiencies and bloated campaign budgets,” says Vertoz founder and CEO Ashish Shah. 

    He further adds, “Geo-targeting can be used to reach out to the voters of a particular region with a highly relevant and effective message. Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) can enable adjusting the campaign creatives on the go in real-time, dynamically changing the copy as per their interests and affinities or for retargeting them.”

    iCubesWire founder and CEO Sahil Chopra gives the example of the previous general elections in India where current Prime Minister Narendra Modi made exceptional use of Twitter and other digital mediums to connect with his supporters. He said, “During the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the digital medium was touted as an efficient and effective way by most of the political parties of India. In fact, when the election results were out, Mr. Modi didn’t declare his victory over the television, or even before his supporters. He chose to tweet about it. This message became one of the most retweeted messages in India, receiving more than 70,000 retweets. Such is the potential power of digital.”

    Similar thoughts are reflected by Ashish Shah as he notes, “Reaching out to the voters on digital platforms assumes supreme importance and has become a major aspect of political campaigns. Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election was largely attributed to its digital campaigns. Closer home, digital media played a significant role in BJP’s landslide victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.”

    He further adds, “With rising technological advancements, Indians are spending more and more time on digital media surfing the internet. As of 2018, India had about 500 million internet users, as per a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar IMRB. The number of urban users accessing the internet daily stands at 295 million, while in rural areas the number stands at 186 million. Further, with affordable handset prices and low-cost data penetration, they are spending more and more time on mobile. Thus, reaching out to these voters on digital platforms assumes supreme importance and has become a major aspect of the political campaigns.”

    Highlighting the core benefits of incorporating a programmatic approach to political advertising, Logicserve Digital co-founder and CEO Prasad Shejale notes, “Since programmatic advertising offers hardcore and precise consumer behavioural insights, even politicians have realised the distinctive importance of this and have started implementing the same for their election strategy to target voters based on the analysis done. Political parties target and plan their election campaigns by specifically addressing their issues and pain points analysed through this form of advertising, and increase awareness and influence potential voters. This automates the bidding process and delivers ads to match their voters’ criteria.”

    What role can programmatic play in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls?

    The biggest democracy of the world, India is all set for its Prime Ministerial polls, which are scheduled to happen in April-May. All the political parties will be putting their best feet forward in alluring the voters to their camps.

    According to the contribution report that BJP filed with the election commission post the 2014 polls, the BJP spent Rs 714.28 crore on election campaigning, the major chunk of which went on to media promotions. Digital accounted for a massive chunk of this expenditure and certainly the results reflected the power of effective poll advertising. This year, the expenditures are only expected to grow and with its manifold benefits, programmatic will surely play an important role in the process.

    Speaking about what could be the trend in the upcoming elections, Chopra contends, “It is certain that the digital medium will be used again in a big way during this election period. Industry estimates suggest that there will be a rise of 15-18 per cent of spends in 2019 during elections and cricket period; wherein programmatic will also be a beneficiary amongst other mediums. Precise targeting, wider reach options, and transparency will be one of the reasons advertisers will embrace programmatic as one of the mediums to create awareness and reach out to people.”

    While it definitely is a powerful tool to woo the voters, the trend of programmatic might have some repercussions in maintaining the sanctity of the voting process in a democracy. Fake ads, delusional narratives, and targeted approach might potentially impact the election results. While the industry doesn’t comment much on the greater impact, it contends for the need for transparency and cautiousness while executing such campaigns.

    Shejale says, “Well, it’s difficult to make an exact statement about this. I wouldn't be able to comment on whether programmatic will play a decisive role since multiple factors contribute to the decision when it comes to political campaigns. But yes, programmatic can help enhance the efficiency and efficacy of the campaigns. It's the responsibility of advertisers and agencies to have responsible marketing in mind since the consumers, over time, read through if there is any wrongdoing.”

    Shah continues the same trail of thought as he states, “One needs to be cautious of issues concerning brand-safety and wrong ad placements. If one is not careful, this can wreak havoc on the campaign. Also, problems like transparency and ad frauds have to be considered. These can leech off the campaign budgets and have a detrimental effect on all the efforts. Campaign managers should ensure that they partner with a programmatic platform which has the right mechanisms to protect the campaigns form such problems. It is advisable to on-board a platform that has brand safety, ad fraud detection, and ad fraud protection mechanisms and provides a good level of transparency.”

    “Many parts of our country especially the tier 2 and 3 cities are experiencing digital transformation. Thanks to low data rates and widespread availability, more and more people from smaller parts of our country are getting acquainted with the vast plethora of possibilities of the digital realm. A recent study by Google stated that the consumption of YouTube on mobile devices has increased by almost 400 per cent and 60 per cent of the total watch time is outside the top 6 metropolitan cities. 70 per cent of internet users from these cities are bypassing desktop and are using mobile for accessing the internet. Any strategy which is made in mind keeping a mobile-first approach will definitely be beneficial for the brands (political parties). Like any other medium within the digital portfolio, programmatic needs to be used in a constructive way,” mentions Chopra.

    While political parties and agencies are advised to be watchful in their conduct while creating political ads, platforms like Google and Facebook are taking their own steps to ensure that the election process remains fair. Ashish Shah shares, “Facebook – the social media giant – has taken notice of it and has recently announced a special offline verification policy for the 2019 General Elections. Google also said that it will introduce an India-specific Political Advertising Transparency Report and a searchable Political Ads Library to provide information like who is purchasing election ads on its platforms and the amount of money being spent.”

    Thus, while programmatic is going to be one effective and sought-after tool in poll promotions, the parties, as well as the advertisers will have to be sensitive about what they put online. At the end of it, the voters are smart and can read through the campaigns that might be malicious or false.

  • News18 India and CNN-News18 Gear Up for General Elections 2019

    News18 India and CNN-News18 Gear Up for General Elections 2019

    MUMBAI: Fierce regional battles and a re-energised opposition in last few months have paved the way for a blazing battle – the upcoming General Elections 2019. As the country prepares to elect the next government of the world’s largest democracy, News18 India and CNN-News18 have lined-up an extensive programming giving viewers an unparalleled access and insight into the elections.

    Continuing the legacy of bringing the most incisive reportage on the elections, News18 India will present its General Election programming under the umbrella branding ‘Sabse Bada Dangal’. From covering high-decibel campaigns and rallies of political parties to questioning the politicians on substantive policy issues that affect the common man, the channel will telecast multitude of special shows. Starting 15 February, the channel has lined-up a comprehensive bulletin capturing major highlights and key stories from across the nation, related to the elections. The programming will also witness special edition of channel’s renowned shows – Bhaiyaji Kahin and Lapete Mein Netaji. While the former has a chaupal-cum-travelogue format providing an interactive platform to connect the voters and local leaders, the latter is a weekly ‘hasya kavi sammelan’ with prominent Hindi poets and satirists who will bring sharp sarcasm and a sense of humor to the political discourse. In the lead-up to the polls, News18 India has also planned live on-ground and in-studio debates from key constituencies featuring senior politicians to discuss about pertinent election issues through shows such as ‘Ye Desh Hai Humara’ and ‘Desh ko Jawaab Do’.  Along with the special editions, the programming will also include profiling of the political leaders, exclusive interviews and wide ranging coverage on polling days and counting day.

    CNN-News18 will delve into all aspects of the Lok Sabha elections with its special programming ‘A Billion Votes’. With its diverse formats and data-driven programming, the channel will bring up-to-the-minute updates throughout the election, keeping viewers apprised of the big moments as they unfold and scrutinise key policies and issues ahead of polling day. From daily shows like ‘Election Epicentre’ and ‘Setting the Election Agenda’ which will cover latest developments related to the elections to special on-ground shows such as ‘Reporter’s Project’ and ‘The Real Bharat’ that will witness seasoned reporters traversing across the length and breadth of the country, the channel will present its viewers with realities and voter sentiments from ground zero. From shows such as ‘Youngistan’ and ‘The Women Vote’ which will put a special focus on the youth and women voters of the country in order to ensure that their voice is captured and showcased to special programming like ‘Kings & Queens’ and ‘Election Yatra’ which will showcase the top leaders who will determine the outcome of Elections 2019, the channel is all set to provide its viewers power-packed programming. Offering a satirical round-up of the elections, ‘The Election That Wasn’t’, will feature Cyrus Broacha and Kunal Vijaykar who will look across the political spectrum, giving their own unique take on the election news and shenanigans. Known for its legacy of the most accurate and fastest results, CNN-News18 will provide an unmatched coverage on polling and counting day.

    News18 India and CNN-News18 will deep dive into data with India’s only AI-driven election analytic tool called the ‘Magic Wall’. Powered by research done at the constituency level that can breakdown into LIVE results based on parameters such as industrial growth, farmer distress, millennial influence, government schemes impact, etc, the Magic Wall will provide an unparalleled experience to the viewers.

    The programming will be led by the formidable editorial team of the channels. On News18 India, Kishore Ajwani, Deputy Managing Editor, Amish Devgan, Executive Editor and Prateek Trivedi, Senior Editor, will be joined by prominent experts like Ram Kripal Singh and Shesh Narain Singh. CNN-News18 will feature top anchors – Bhupendra Chaubey, Executive Editor, Zakka Jacob, Editor – Output, Anand Narasimhan, Deputy Executive Editor, Marya Shakil, Political Editor. Complementing them will be a panel of eminent journalists and political analysts like Swapan Dasgupta, Vir Sanghvi and Ajoy Bose to name a few.

    The General Election coverage on both the channels will be further augmented by the extensive reach of the entire News18 Network. It will feature a range of interviews and debates with the biggest newsmakers, insightful conversations with experts and voters, alike as well as the wittiest and timeliest satire.