oh yeah, sacks full of rupees ..

Still very much an urban phenomenon of course. But clearly not just the elite nor the South Bombay stereotype you obssess over Nilu! Check out the icube report at this page http://www.iamai.in/reports1.aspx – which was carried out across town classes in urban india – 30 cities: 20,000 Households, 90,000 individuals, 1000 SMEs and 500 Cyber Cafes.

There is a fundamental truth to political communication: it’s never aimed at the society’s elite.

Trust me, despite what South Bombay implying otherwise, in India the use of Internet pretty much makes one an elite. Which would support the theory that websites in Indian elections are irrelevant and will remain so for the next election as well.

IMHO the campaign failed for two major reasons..

1. As you have mentioned.. there was visiblity but no message was conveyed.

2. The internet penetration in Indian masses is still pretty low.

I’d like to elaborate more on the point 2 as the point 1 has been already covered nice by you

Internet penetration in India is not as high as it is in the U.S. The numbers are improving, but we should always keep in mind that the majority in the new adopters are school and college going students and not too many grown ups. Students use the internet for various purposes, but they dont contribute to elections in anyway at all. There is still a vast majority of rural adults who are unaware of the internet or anything put on it, so they remain unaffected as well.

I am sure it is a good medium for a lot of businesses to reach to thier potential clients, but with elections, its still too far feteched to consider as an important campaign medium.

Shubham – if you come across any mobile figures, do share!

Absolutely … because of the following reasons:

- there are 45 million active internet users in India. Small number. But growing – growth from Sept 07-08 is 30% acc. to IMRB International stats
- many of them are already having conversations online in some form or the other
- they’re easier to reach, segment and target by advertisers and marketers and campaigners (incl. political) in a focused fashion
- cost of joining the conversation already happening isn’t high – entry barriers are low – it needs understanding of the space and commitment
- setting objectives and measures for what you want to achieve is doable and critical – this is one area where many fail as they still believe in old metrics of pageviews, CPC etc.
- it’s a social medium and we’re all human beings first. word of mouth, feedback loops whether formal or informal have been a part of our behaviour for centuries. we building relationships too. this medium lends itself to all of them quite nicely.
- it offers them a medium to ‘listen’ too – like a research lab
- it can be forgiving as long as you build trust through transparent open conversations
- speed too is a great benefit – you can build momentum quickly and make course corrections quickly too
- it’s a multi-dimensional medium so you can chat, tweet, blog, network, podcast, video-cast etc etc etc. Each of these is not just about ‘publishing online’ but also engaging with audiences

Under the following conditions:

- that they first understand the social nature of this medium
- that they appreciate it and are willing to interact as human beings and not talking heads
- that they engage in conversations with their ‘audiences’ – mere push advertising that shifts online will not work
- that they integrate a strong message with the medium so they can ‘talk with’ rather than ‘talk to’ and join the conversations and really listen
- have a clear agenda that is relevant to all the energy and captures the imagination of people online

With the following result:

- build political awareness and consciousness among the online population
- you build your listening posts for a portion of your electorate; which helps you build empathy with them; make your message to them more relevant …

I could go on … maybe you’ve sparked another blogpost with your question!!! Thanks for making me think as always.

How did you arrive at “absolutely”?

The online efforts by BJP definitely got them visibility but they failed to evoke any connection for numerous reasons, including the push/broadcast approach of campaign, inability to relate to the leader behind the campaign and maybe to the parties agenda, lack of simple yet concrete message etc.

I feel unless the core offering is strong/desirable, not even social media can be of much help.

The advertising on internet, television, and radio was extensive. Though I did not really receive any telephone calls / sms from political parties.

Mobile might have been better with more target audience (Mr Mahesh Murthy pointed this out on Twitter)