Lok Sabha Polls: Political parties set to spend Rs 1,500-2,000 crore on ads
Political parties plan to spend ₹1,500-2,000 crore on ads across traditional and digital media platforms to lure voters during the high-stakes Lok Sabha elections, advertising executives told ET.
About 55% of the political ad spending is likely to be allocated to digital media, with TV, print, outdoor and radio accounting for the remaining 45%. The Lok Sabha election is expected to be held between April and May.
«We expect political ad spends to be ₹1,500-2,000 crore during the Lok Sabha elections,» GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar told ET. «We feel that political parties will spend close to 55% of the ad spend on digital and the remaining 45% on other mediums,» he added.
Kunal Lalani, chairman of Crayons Advertising, believes that the ad expenditure of political parties will be significantly higher than the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
«The cost of buying media has gone up significantly in the last five years,» said Lalani. He added that the BJP and Congress are likely to emerge as the largest advertisers, while regional parties are expected to have comparatively modest advertising budgets.
Political parties are negotiating to secure premium advertising slots to dominate the share of voice, according to multiple media executives.
Sivakumar Sundaram, executive director and CEO of Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), predicted that print media alone will generate ₹300-350 crore from political advertising during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
BCCL is the publisher of The Economic Times.
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