'Outside' support for MNS campaign

MUMBAI: If Raj Thackeray���s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) does well in the forthcoming assembly elections, rest assured that it���s with some ���outsider��� help. The party that prides itself as the champion of the Marathi cause, actually uses a call centre in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, to tap voters in Mumbai through mobile phone marketing.

The low cost offered by the hitech city could be one reason why MNS outsourced a critical part of its make-or-break political campaign to a neighbouring state. But Maharashtra���s political class is using every trick in the book, and the internet, to woo voters in a no-holds-barred election to be held on October 13.

And it���s important to keep every initiative a well-guarded secret, even if it���s something as common as distributing silicon wristbands, that cyclist Lance Armstrong made popular globally with his Livestrong message.

When the Shiv Sena was planning to woo the Marathi manoos with silicon wrist bands bearing
the message ���Maharashtrachya Vijay Majha Hathaath��� (Maharashtra���s victory is in my hands), the creation of these bands was a closely-guarded secret.

With only party president Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya and the ad agency in the loop. ���The idea was a simple, but powerful one-to-one communication tool. We could not risk it getting leaked,��� says Bhupal Ramnathkar, founder, Umbrella Design, which created Shiv Sena���s ad campaign.

For the Sena���s political partner ���BJP ��� advertising is all about wooing the youth. ���Politics will cross over from class and religion to developmental politics with this segment becoming important,��� feels Vinod Tawde, state general secretary, BJP. As a result, the party is focusing its energy on 18-to-35-year olds, who, according to him, form about 40% of the voter base.

Apart from an SMS campaign that addresses thought-provoking issues, the BJP has also engineered an email marketing campaign that has audio-visual links of the state���s party leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari and discussion forums on websites. Other innovations in the hinterland include a parody of songs from famous Marathi serials and Hindi movies.

The ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress alliance is also looking to tap the unconvinced voter. ���People may ignore other things but everyone checks their mobile phone for SMSes. It is also a cheap medium as it costs only 4 paise per SMS but helps reach the masses,��� says CS Parmeshwaran, who heads Paramin Advertisers which handles the Congress and NCP���s media buying account.

Surprisingly, advertising on television forms only about 25% of the total advertising for the Congress and NCP while radio accounts for another 10%. On major Marathi general entertainment channels (GECs) and news channels, the Congress and NCP are going all out with advertising spots of 20 and 30 seconds. ���Out of sight is out of mind. We are going all out to send the message to the voter,��� agrees Mr Parmeshwaran.

Opposition parties argue that only the ruling parties can afford such opulence and claim that the combine is splurging about Rs 20 crore. The MNS, however, says it is counting on its leader to generate all the buzz. ���Everyone wants to know what Raj Thackeray has to say. So, anywhere he goes it becomes a big event.

Besides, we simply don���t have the money to advertise anyway,��� says MNS general secretary Shirish Parkar. The MNS is also using the SMS in a strategic way. As rallies are a big part of the publicity campaign for the party, it sends out mass SMSes to inform people about the time, place and other details of the rallies.

With the elections just about four days away, the ad volumes of election campaigns on Marathi GECs are soaring. According to Adex India ��� a division of TAM Media ��� ad volumes in the Marathi GEC genre soared from nil in the week ended September 26 to 14,000 seconds in the following week (ended October 3). The share of election campaigns in overall TV advertising pie has also gone up four-fold.