Building a Political Digital Campaign team in India

India saw the usage of a digital campaign in elections for the first time during General Elections 2014. While to some extent digital marketing was seen before the 2014 elections, in a true sense it was only in 2014 we saw an organized effort in the digital space.

There were 3 players in 2014 who used digital for their political campaign – PM (then Gujarat CM) Narendra Modi, BJP & the rest.

I have keenly observed a few State/assembly election campaigns post 2014, especially the recently concluded assembly elections in Karnataka (May 2018). It has evolved since 2014. Many ask me what does it take to be part of a digital campaign team.

Reasons For Digital Campaign Becoming Popular in Indian Elections

For a country where door-to-door campaign, appeasement by various methods have worked for decades why did digital campaign become popular in India? One could attribute to these reasons,

1. The rise of Social Media in India: The best way for politicians to reach the youth and first-time voters is by reaching out to them where they can be found in one place in large numbers – Facebook. The table here shows why reaching out to the first-time voters was very important in 2014 elections. Twitter is more popular amongst serious News readers and journalists, so you ought to be on Twitter too. 

   General Elections in India	2004	2009	2014
   Population (in billions)	1.12	1.21	1.29
   Total Number of Eligible Voters (in millions)	668	714	814
   First Time Voters (in millions)	17	43	101
   Percentage of eligible voters who are first time voters	2.5%	6%	12.4%

2. Mobile Internet: The mobile internet penetration has increased by leaps and bounds, especially in the last few years, thanks to Reliance Jio. By advertising on mobile portals, one can reach voters in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns (Bharat), and if the message should be in an Indian language.
3. False Narrative: Media at times twists the facts of what a politician actually said. The only way you can control the narrative is by publishing your message on a platform controlled by you – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (video), Soundcloud (audio).

This blog post series covers the following topics,

1. Election War Room
2. Groups in a Political Digital Campaign Team
3. Background of a Content Team Member
4. How to Get Facts & Figures For An Election Digital Campaign
5. Books, Blogs, Courses To Prepare For An Election Digital Campaign
6. Courses Relevant For Election Digital Campaign Members
7. How to exploit the potential of Indian Languages in an Election Digital Campaign
8. Elections Market Survey & Digital Campaign Providers in India

Election War Room

The core team needs to work from the same location to be more effective. Popular political leaders tend to get many volunteers who are spread all over the State or the country but to coordinate, set the strategy and agenda it is better for the core team to work from one office.

Generally, this campaign office is called “War Room”. I could see the pride in the team members when they use the word “War Room”.

It is very important for the political leader to himself (or herself) visit the War Room on a periodic basis to boost the morale of the team. It is vital for the team members to hear from the leader on what his expectations are from this group.

The War Room is like any typical office,

1. Usually a couple of big halls in which you have many computers.
2. Multiple conferences, meeting rooms.
3. A good conference & video call system.
4. Good high-speed internet connectivity, from at least two internet providers. Make sure you have a couple of internet dongles with you as a backup for connectivity.
5. And most importantly, good restrooms!

Groups in a Political Digital Campaign Team

A typical digital campaign team would need the following resources,

1. Research Team: This team needs to build banks of information which are used for the manifesto, speech writing, countering the opposition’s claims, setting the narrative right. This team needs to understand the policies (implementation mechanism, demography of beneficiaries, the final outcome). The output of this team is used offline and online.
2. Writers: The team should have English and multiple Indian language writers who write for the candidate, party.
3. Editor, who takes the final call on what goes online after checking the facts, language of the article.
4. PR Team: The role of the traditional media is very important to make your digital campaign a success. This team should have built a comprehensive list of journalists (by media – print, radio, TV, digital publishers and by language). It is important to work with journalists as they amplify your message (hopefully without changing the narrative). The media monitoring group can be part of this team to track the coverage their leader is getting.

Purely Digital Group

1. Webmaster, to maintain your website
2. Data Science Team, to analyze data collected during the campaign. It is best not to build complex tools, instead, use existing tools available in the market. This team can help you co-relate what is being said by the party during the campaign and how people are reacting.
3. Search Engine Optimization team
4. Social Media team: A very key component of the digital campaign team. Possibly the team, in shifts, may have to work 24 hours a day as the election day approaches. This team should use listening tools to keep an eye (or ear?) on the conversations happening on various digital platforms.
5. Creative Team (Designers): To give life to the works of the writers by designing posters, banners, images for social media sharing.
6. Distribution team, which typically uses SMS, Whatsapp, Sharechat, Facebook, Twitter to increase the reach of the messaging.

Needless to mention, “content will be the king” which makes or breaks a digital campaign.

Usually, the team size doubles as the election day approaches. The team needs to be ready for long days.

Other posts in this series are,

• Background of a Content Team Member
• How to Get Facts & Figures For An Election Digital Campaign
• Books, Blogs, Courses To Prepare For An Election Digital Campaign
• Elections Market Survey & Digital Campaign Providers in India
• How to exploit the potential of Indian Languages in an Election Digital Campaign

Also see,

• False Narrative is more dangerous than Fake News
• Social Media has fueled the reach of Fake News
• Digital Ad Spend During Lok Sabha 2019 Elections in India