With Covid-19 Lockdown, Political Parties Boost Digital Spending

The nation-wide lockdown hasn’t curbed the zest of political parties to cut their spending for political outreach. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was among the first political parties to use social media as a tool for their campaign blitzkrieg, is now planning to celebrate the first anniversary of the Modi 2.0 government with over 1K virtual conferences on Saturday (May 30)

These conferences will be held by senior BJP leaders from both Center and states. Each conference will last about an hour each, of which 40 minutes will be scheduled for the address and the rest for an interaction. BJP chief JP Nadda will also address people through Facebook Live on the same day. Meanwhile, the party workers will deliver a letter written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 10 Cr homes across the country.

Previously, the BJP had run #MainBhiChowkidar, ‘Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai’ and ‘My First Vote for Modi’ online campaigns, in 2019. This year, the party’s plans to start ‘Har Kaam Desh Ke Naam’ in March hit the Covid-19 roadblock.

BJP’s Massive Online Metrics

According to Facebook Ad Library report India, BJP leads overall spending with 2,658 ads costing up to INR 4.50 Cr between February 2019 to May 24, 2020. It’s followed by Congress with 3,700 ads costing INR 1.83 Cr during the same period. Some of BJP’s top spending campaigns were, ‘My First Vote For Modi’ with costed INR 1.38 Cr, ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ with INR 1.15 Cr and ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’, a campaign without a disclaimer, which cost INR 1.08 Cr. Meanwhile, the ‘Nation with Namo’ campaign cost the BJP INR 1.29 Cr between February 2019 to May 24, 2020.

Regional Parties Pitch In

Meanwhile, regional parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) spend INR 68.2 Lakh and INR 59.8 Lakh, respectively between February 2019 and May 24, 2020. Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party was among the big spenders. In April 2019, the Telangana-based party had crossed BJP in terms of political ad spending with INR 1.4 Cr across 89 Google ads.

Lockdown No Reason To Pause

Meanwhile between April 25 to May 24, 2020, when the nation was locked down due to the pandemic, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) among other regional parties emerged as leading advertisers in India.

For instance, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) Ondrinaivom Vaa (Power of Togetherness) push spent INR 22.3 Lakh over 543 campaigns, followed by AIADMK’s (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) Chief Minister Office (CMO) campaign with 54 ads costing INR 14.1 Lakh. DMK reappeared on the third sport with 111 ads costing INR 8 Lakh.

Other campaigns, like the one run by political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) between April 25 to May 24, 2020 included ‘Banglar Gorbo Mamata’, ‘ TN Deserves Better’ and ‘Baat Bihar Ki’ totalled to INR 20.91 Lakh. Some other campaigns by Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, CMO Rajasthan, and government of Rajasthan also spent heavily on running their social media campaign on Facebook, during the lockdown. DMK’s MK Stalin and health and Family welfare department of Odisha also made it to the list with a spend of INR 3.03 Lakh and INR 2.40 Lakh, respectively, according to Facebook Ad Library.