Election Commission’s online campaign a big hit, youth say ‘whistle podu’

Bala Manian, Chokha, Murthy, Veera, Joshua, Karthik, Karthik Nathan, Hamsini, Lakshmi, Akriti and Riha along with their favourite dog, are lounging in a funky space, tossing a few ideas, looking out for popular movie dialogues, punch lines and other references from pop culture. If you think they are just a bunch of youngsters chilling out, then you couldn’t be far from the truth. This is actually the team behind the State Election Commission’s successful online campaign, that is a rage among youngsters and have seen multiple shares on social media. And this is how they work! 

“The most important measure for our campaign is the number of people sharing this message on their own walls. The traditional measures of liking and commenting which is what any typical social media campaign is measured by, won’t do for this one. And if you see our social media channels, the reach of the campaign is growing by leaps and bounds every day,” says Bala Manian, Director of OPN Advertising, a five-year old ad agency, who are behind the successful campaigns.

Amidst a flurry of activity on any given day at the office, Bala says they have a white board in office which everyone stares at when trying to ideate - the question that sits on the board right now in big, bold letters is ‘What do you feel like sharing on your FB/ Twitter wall?’. And that is the test that every single post of theirs has to pass. “This is the first time we’re working on a government project. We saw the tender ad calling for proposals and sent in our bid. We barely made the deadline in a mad dash and even then weren’t sure we got it right (ie, the tender submission!). So it was a pleasant surprise when we did get shortlisted and eventually selected,” she says with an impish grin. 

OPN Advertising was also responsible for CSK’s Whistle Podu video and the team has worked on a range of ad campaigns for brands like Gold Winner, Dheepam lamp oil, TVS Capital Fund, Evam Theatre Group, Gulf Lubricants and Sulekha.com. 

The team is now working on the second phase of the EC’s campaign, where they plan to focus on ethical voting. “We are planning to rope in celebrities from film and sports world. R Ashwin, Suriya, Karthi, Dinesh Karthik and Deepika Pallikal are some of the names in our minds. They have a direct connection with GenY,” says Chokha, creative director of the agency. This will be followed by the third and final phase of campaign that will start 10 days before the polls. “We will ask people to come out and vote on the election day,” he adds. 

The entire drive has resonated well with youth as it is different from the regular and preachy campaigns. “We began the campaign on January 16 day after Pongal, to make people register for elections. We put out ‘Be like Bill’ memes with Pongal background,” says Bala. 

If you check out the Tamil Nadu CEO Facebook page, you will see a range of memes and posters all based on pop culture. “When people get on social media, their first question is not ‘Oh! What does the Government have to say to me today?” It is usually to see what their friends are up to and see interesting posts, videos, jokes etc. So leveraging popular culture is our way of ensuring that our messages find a way to be a part of general conversation among people,” shares Chokha.