Political parties are extensively tapping social media influencers — those with a sizeable fan base on platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram — ahead of the elections to push their messages through subtle campaigns, advertisers and marketers said.
These will be the first elections in India where social media influencers, who come from different walks of life, like food, fashion and lifestyle, are expected to play a significant role in campaigns. Parties see these people, who have made a name for themselves in the digital space, as an effective medium to reach out to the critical millennial voters.
“This year’s elections will see influencers playing a massive role. From a budget perspective, 20-25% of the budgets will be allocated for influencer marketing,” said Prashant Puri, cofounder and chief executive of global digital marketing firm AdLift. “The focus is across the board on all platforms. They want to tap into the 450 million people online. They want to tap new voters, people voting for the first time.”
Instagram is the hot bed for influencer marketing and these millennials, he said.
Kapil Gupta, CEO of OMLogic Consulting, which has worked on campaigns for the Congress, BJP, Lok Dal and the Akali Dal in the past, said parties had begun categorising Youtubers and Instagrammers separately for categories like lifestyle.
“Influencer marketing is a formalised space this time. Everybody in Bollywood will have a take on elections this year. These are factually paid stances,” he said. “There is campaigning going on right now on how many such influencers — across Bollywood, television, standup comedians and musicians — can you have endorsing your party. I know people who have taken up stances and whose talks have materialised.”
Platforms like Instagram do not break down the number of influencers by categories in different markets. Mails sent to YouTube and Instagram on the number of possible influencers did not elicit any response till press time Thursday.
Zafar Rais, CEO of Mindshift Interactive, said influencers were being constantly approached for opinions on political parties and their stance.
“We work with a lot of influencers on other subjects. We know influencers who are being constantly approached regarding what their opinion is and who they are rooting for. A lot of brands are also trying to capitalise on this,” he said, adding: “Over the past few years we have seen how digital mediums impact voting and opinions.”
If an influencer has an opinion on social media about a particular party, the party is approaching the person to share a stronger stance through video content, he said. “The categories of influencers who are being tapped are known to be fairly opinionated and known to kind of always get into debates and discussions with brands and people on social media.”
A marketer working with some political parties for influencer campaigns said there was no need for the messaging to be direct and it could be built around campaigns emphasising the importance of voting.
“This is where we are moving to get the new age folks to vote for parties,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Messaging could be around voting with hashtags promoting voting, or have a party line or logo in place.
Puri said lack of regulations around social media influencer marketing were being leveraged by parties.
“We don’t have any specific regulations on advertising on social media. Platforms like Instagram say people need to mention it’s a paid promotion but celebrities rarely mention it at times. It is like you are sitting in a restaurant and you say it is great. You may not disclose it is a paid promotion and nobody gets to know if it’s paid or not,” he added.
Actor and comedian Ssumier Pasricha, who has more than 1.5 lakh followers on Instagram and who has worked on a pro bono voting campaign for the registration of voting IDS for the Punjab government in the past, said he saw nothing wrong if political parties were approaching influencers.
“Nobody has approached me yet. But, the biggest brands approach you for money. As long as you are not promoting anything wrong, it is fine. If they are being rallied for campaigns and the agendas are not wrong, what is wrong in this? Celebrities are anyways approached to push government promotions and schemes.”
Parties take the help of local celebrities and people who are of some stature and get them to appeal to vote, said Rahul Jain, founder of Social Rajneeti, which works on constituency-based campaigns for candidates in states like Maharashtra.
“Tapping local influencers on social media platforms is a common practice these days just before elections. A lot of local campaigns are moved in support of a political person or to vote in general,” he said, adding: “We plan to do that for our candidates too.”
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