Why so much of gyan, concern,
debate and deliberation over it?
It is an open secret.
Even politicians from economically
backward states like Bihar or Jharkhand or politicians from culturally backward
states like Haryana or Rajasthan or from Western Uttar Pradesh use them,
especially those who have lager game-plan for their political future, like
playing a centre-stage role in state polity. And the situation is becoming
chronic (or, alternatively, more relevant) with politicians who aspire for
sustained and enhanced presence in the national politics.
A Public Relations consultant or
a PR consultancy is rapidly becoming the in-thing for them.
I have been approached by some
though I did not take the assignments. But I know professionals, at different
levels of their PR profile, handling accounts of individual politicians.
Yes, they do all to keep it
secret but as said above, such things are always an open secret, at least for
them who are in the game.
So, why this fuss over Rahul
Gandhi’s branding or we should say the latest episode in Rahul Gandhi’s branding
exercise, so much so that the Congress spokespersons had to come forward to
issue official denial(s) to the reports.
But it is not a new initiative.
Much has been written over the brand
management efforts centered at Rahul Gandhi, his team of strategists, the Team
RG, his ‘style’ of politics, his oratory skills and his body language and
gestures.
The debate on whether Congress is
hiring image-makeover consultants is a misplaced one. Irrespective of the
Congress denial, the elements and the frequency of scheduling of the
communication campaign of Congress and thus the projection of Rahul Gandhi and
his team would tell the public the imprints of professionals behind the
exercise and would certainly tell the people who can identify the experts by
their work if Dentsu, JWT and Genesis Burson-Marsteller are involved or not.
Also, the exclamatory
observations over this Rs. 500 crore are utterly misplaced when we see the cost
of the regular political ad campaigns like a ‘Bharat Nirman’ that counts in thousands
of crores.
Let’s quote some of the easily
searchable (with simple, routine googling) article excerpts from media reports
on Congress and Rahul Gandhi’s branding exercise:
Congress ad blitzkrieg in the
works, Business Standard, September 12, 2013 (1)
Till date, 11 agencies
including JWT, Percept, Crayons, Equus and Grey have made ad pitches to the
team comprising Singh, Ajay Maken, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jairam Ramesh,
Deepinder Hooda, Vishwajit Prithvijit Singh, Manish Tewari at the party’s ‘War
Room’ at GRG Marg. The presentations are then sent to Congress vice-president
Rahul Gandhi, who is likely to be the party’s face of the 2014 campaign.
However, the final call, would be taken by Rahul and party president Sonia
Gandhi, sources added.
In the last 2009 Lok Sabha
polls, Crayons and Percept had bagged the Congress ad contract. No agency had
been finalised as yet for this year, said a senior Congress leader.
2014 Elections: Congress signs
up JWT for Rs 550-cr poll campaign; to counter Narendra Modi's 'claims' – The
Economic Times, September 2013 (2)
Congress has engaged
advertising agency JWT for a Rs 500-crore publicity blitz to stymie the
challenge posed by BJP's Narendra Modi and help smoothen its path to a
hat-trick in the 2014 general elections by hardselling its welfare credentials.
Ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha
polls, JWT, Crayons and Percept had handled the party's ad campaign, which
included purchasing rights of AR Rahman's Oscar-winning number 'Jai Ho'.
In 2004, the Congress campaign
was mainly handled by Leo Burnett, which packaged its Aam Aadmi messaging that
helped the party undercut NDA's 'India Shining' campaign. Some of
the work in the 2004 campaign, notably ad films, was handled by Percept, the
agency behind the ongoing Bharat Nirmaan campaign.
Congress picks Dentsu, Taproot
& JWT for poll ad campaign – The Economic Times, October 8, 2013 (3)
The Congress party has opted
for many of the same people who were behind its advertising campaign for the
2009 elections, picking Dentsu and Taproot to join JWT as the agencies that
will handle the Rs 500 crore contract.
Okay, now these three reports should
be enough to gauge for the curious fellows on how regular this practices has
been. Yes, most of these reports talk about Congress and poll preparations but only
an immature mind (of a communication pro) can see Congress and Rahul differently
while preparing a brand management (and thus performance) strategy for Congress.
Also, before this, Rahul was
running the show in a roundabout way. Now, he is the face. So, this time, it
has to be more direct, centering on him, because stakes are highly
unprecedented, highly delicately skewed.
So, if earlier, it was around
Congress and projecting Rahul was a part of it, this time, it is going to be
around Rahul and Congress is going to follow the leads from projections and
imagery about Rahul Gandhi.
The change of guard is going to
focus the Rahul Gandhi way of politics (the way he talks about it, especially
in post-Aam Aadmi Party scenario) as the central theme of the communication
campaign in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
Also, whenever there are no hopes
left for the Congress party, as is the case now with absolutely high
anti-incumbency against the Manmohan Singh led UPA government, the party
leaders has nothing but to look to the Nehru-Gandhi family as the last resort.
Now, the effectiveness of this last resort has not been consistent, but at
least, it gives the party leaders a point to base their hopes in the atmosphere
of 360 Degree gloom.
And to fight this atmosphere of
360 Degree gloom, the Congress party is going to soak itself deeply in the
blitzkrieg of a 360 Degree communication campaign employing tools of
advertising and public relations hoping it would make for the lost ground.
Rahul Gandhi or Congress taking
help of image management consultants for the upcoming general elections is a
regular political communication campaign, an effort that has no guarantee of
ROI (return on investment), more so, in the prevailing political circumstances.
We saw the National Democratic
Alliance’s (NDA) ‘India Shining’ campaign failing to deliver. The Rahul Gandhi
brand management exercise coupled with ‘Bharat Nirman 2.0’ could well be a
repeat of the ‘India Shining’ campaign.
The outcome may be as challenging
as the evolution of the ownership structures of the advertising and public
relations agencies and their holding groups!