Social media:Mayawati's BSP likely to join the bandwagon

Lucknow: Acceding to the demands of time, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also geared up to join social media bandwagon ,in a departure from the stereotype ahead of the 2017 Vidan Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

An animated video of the blue brigade with beautiful graphic works getting viral on social media had already created a flutter among the BSP rivals as the party has also started to build the virtual audience.

Though, the BSP supremo does not believe in running behind the web audience but the majority of youth voters is prompting her to think otherwise.

She mayb launch the social media blitz on Thursday, unconfirmed reports said.

Gone are the days when political parties relied on party machinery:

It was last Lok Sabha election, when the power of social media came to the fore forcing political parties to design their campaign accordingly, BSP being no exception.

Congress ropes in PK

The new generation political strategist Prashant Kishor, popularly called as PK by the Congressmen, had been the backroom boy behind the success theory of Narendra Modi and more recently the success of Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also attributed to his social media vehicle.

Though late, but not the least, the Congress has tied up with PK for the assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party (SP) brings PP to counter PK

Despite having an amiable Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the ruling samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has been in search of a convincing and English speaking face for the party.

The party found all those qualities in Delhi University (DU) graduate young and dynamic Pankuri Pathak.

Pankhuri, in the recent had started the #IsupportAkhilesh campaign on social media and was getting good response especially in NCR region but to her nightmare she could not get the support of partymen in Lucknow.

How it started:

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi's election juggernaut in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls is an example of how to prepare and successfully implement a marketing and branding campaign. Irrespective of your faith, ideology and voting decision, there has been no escaping Modi.

Modi’s Backroom boys:

Not boys but actually men, the responsibility of Modi’s campaign was on three of his secretaries, who were operating out of Gandhinagar — chief principal secretary K Kailashnathan, additional principal secretary A K Sharma and principal secretary G C Murmu — and Resident Commissioner in Delhi Bharat Lal.

Campaign strategist

The blueprint of Modi’s marketing and communication strategy has been drawn by Citizens for Accountable Governance, which was the brainchild of Prashant Kishor.

Modi’s digital strategy

His social media campaign was managed by his former OSD Hiren Joshi, a former RSS man. The mainstream campaign — TV, print and radio ads — was managed by Manoj Ladwa, a London-based mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer , said to have played a crucial role in getting the UK to open its doors to Modi.

Media Planning:

While the media planning was handled by marketing communications agency Madison and advertising veterans such as Piyush Pande and Prasoon Joshi had provided creative inputs for the campaign, Manoj supervised the whole process from an office in Lodhi Road, New Delhi.