With Lok Sabha elections approaching, saffron surge seen in political ads

With elections approaching, political parties are going all out on their marketing campaigns. While digital and social media is emerging as the new battleground, traditional platforms like TV, print and radio continue to find favour. The BJP has been more aggressive in the first 11 weeks of the calendar year, taking up more than half the share of total political advertising from January 1 to March 16

Indexed growth of political ads on TV, print and radio*

1. The BJP has dominated political advertising this year so far with more than 50% share of ad insertions across TV, print and radio by political parties

2. The Congress comes in a far second in terms of ad insertions with a share of 1%

3. Ad insertion trend of political ads in first three weeks of 2019 for TV and print were almost same

Source: TAM Adex

4. Political ad insertions highest on TV during 5th week and 11th week compared to other mediums

5. For first six weeks of 2019, radio was least preferred medium for such ads. But parties used the medium from the seventh week 

6. Compared to 2014, political parties have shown a shift in platform preference. This year, so far, radio has seen a growth of 14% in political ad insertions, while print and TV have both seen a decline of 9% and 83%, respectively