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Please see this informative article about digital marketing used in election :

From 'Har Ghar Dastak' To Social Media: How Indian Political Campaigns Are Evolving The campaign of the BJP in 2014 is an epitome of how political parties follow marketing campaigners to the tee.

Digital Marketing in election 2014 :

The general elections in the year 2014 were a completely different ball game. They were fought between personalities and the traditional party politics took a back seat. The election saw the rise of brand Modi who was greatly assisted by the digital marketing campaigns that were designed much before the elections. The BJP roped in Prashant Kishore to do an image makeover of Narendra Modi who apart from the blot of Godhra Riots enjoyed an image of a pro-development leader. The party used multiple tools of digital marketing one of which was online reputation management. The social media teams of BJP posted content on channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter which influenced people’s perception of Narendra Modi.



In all posts, he was projected as a leader who was pro development backed by his impressive record in governing the state of Gujarat. Campaigns such as “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas” meant development for all, and appeasement to none attracted youth who had lost interest due to the traditional communal and caste politics played by parties earlier. Channels such as WhatsApp and Youtube were used to spread the message which was heart of the campaign,” Abki baar Modi Sarkar.” This line became extremely popular and was shared widely on social media in the form of political manifestos, agendas, memes and satire. The Opposition on the other hand failed to understand the growing popularity of this new and an important marketing platform.



Narendra Modi’s digital teams used search engine optimization extensively to suppress negative content relating to Godhra riots and his estranged wife. The BJP campaign team made brilliant use of technology when hologram was used by Narendra Modi to address multiple rallies at one time. This enabled BJP and Modi to develop a huge following on the social media. Later, we saw the advent of user generated content for the first time in politics. A number of pages in support of Mr.Modi were created and they outnumbered the number of pages which communicated messages against him and the party. BJP tapped this opportunity of user generated content and developed brand loyalists who would swear by and defend any strategic move which the party undertook then.



The BJP replicated the success of its social media strategy effectively in the state elections which followed in Maharashtra. Their digital outreach program targeted properly segmented population in the state under the campaign “Kuthe neun thevla aahe Maharashtra majha.”This slogan signified the falling growth and shoddy state of development in the state. The digital teams after doing on ground surveys could effectively segment Maharashtrian population based on their development needs. Every segment was targeted through specific WhatsApp messages underlining BJP’s development vision and highlighting shortcomings of the government of the day. BJP made significant gains in this election and emerged as the single largest party by winning 122 of 288 seats. The BJP formed a minority government in the state and later allied with Shiv Sena in December 2014 to form a majority coalition government.