From selfies with celebrities to biopic, branding PM Modi in election year

January has been a busy month at the office of Brand Narendra Modi. First there was the selfie with Bollywood stars. Next was a five part series on the hugely popular Humans of Bombay page on Facebook where the prime minister’s rags to riches story is being told. A biopic with Vivek Oberoi playing the PM was announced and two propaganda movies, The Accidental PM and Uri were released. Most recently the PM debuted as an animated character with the popular children’s superhero Chota Bheem in digital game promoting Swachh Bharat.  

With polls scheduled a few months from now, the team is wasting no time. Popular culture and social media are being used to present the PM as the best man for the job, yet another time and wash off the dark spots that demonetisation and high unemployment numbers have left on his image.

That was only to be expected from a seasoned marketer say brand experts while warning that the highly volatile digital world is a double-edged sword and those harnessing it power must also know how to keep their distance. 

Vicky Kaushal in the movie Uri

“If social has had a successful case study in India, it is Modi,” says Ashish Mishra, CEO of Interbrand India. And now as the opposition has wisened up to the game, it is even more important that the PM’s team step up their game, he adds. 

The PM, says Ambi Parameswaran, founder Brand-Building.com, has masterfully created his own media to communicate with key audiences and walks both digital and non-digital worlds with ease. “He tweets often and has ‘Mann Ki Baat’ (a radio show where he broadcasts to the people via the government-owned AIR). This has given him access to the vast non-Twitter generation too. In a sense he is straddling two very different audiences with tailored messages,” he adds.

The Humans of Bombay page was but a natural extension of the Twitter experiment say experts. Moulded on the Humans of New York initiative and originally started as a Facebook page for street photographs and stories about its people, the page has phenomenal engagement numbers. On its website it claims to garner 40,000 likes on an average for its posts. 

However, there have been as many brickbats as likes for the PM’s inspirational life story on the platform with many even vowing to stay off the page for having diluted its original intent. “Not always does social media noise convert into commensurate votes on the ballot. But it has been smartly used by Modi. He has managed also to ‘youngify’ his personal brand this way,” says Sandeep Goyal, founder, Mogae Media.

PM Modi in a digital game

He has also been astute enough to use films. In January, Uri, a big hit, and The Accidental Prime Minister, which did not meet with much success, were used by the PM’s team to showcase his military might and show the opposition in poor light. Such films and more like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Padman mean that cinema is now an active medium in political canvassing. What this signifies is much larger scale and budgets. “Also the belief that overt campaigning is no longer as impactful as perhaps good storytelling,” Goyal says.

All of this will go hand in hand with traditional campaigning. Goyal says that while rallies and marches will still be relevant, in 2019 wars may be fought over Twitter using not just speeches, but memes. And Mishra points out that Modi is a great brand consultant who mastered the game in 2014. To do it again, he would need to tweak some of the old rules.

“The medium has become the message. All the debate and dialogue is happening on social media irrespective of vote conversion, everyone in the political domain has no choice but to be seen on the social media battlefield,” Goyal adds. And therein lies the danger.

The brand toolkit

• Selfies with Bollywood celebrities, from Ranbir Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana to Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt, everyone lined up to be in the frame with the PM

• A biopic with Vivek Oberoi playing the lead, expected to launch before the elections

• An animated character in a game promoting Swachh Bharat and featuring children’s superhero Chhota Bheem

• A 5-part rags to riches story on the Humans of Bombay Facebook page, his last episode was shared 11,000 times

• Uri, starring Vicky Kaushal, on surgical strikes against Pakistan used to demonstrate the PM’s military prowess