Abstract

In the Indian general elections of 2014 conducted in the months of April and May 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide victory. The general elections of 2014 were the first time that a non-Indian National Congress (INC) party had won a complete majority since the country became independent in 1947. The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, led a presidential style election campaign across the country. Modeling its campaign on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign of 2008, the BJP relied heavily on social media to reach the young voters of the country. A not-for-profit organization called Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), formed by former industry professionals and volunteers, spearheaded the campaign. Data from the past general elections and opinion polls was carefully analyzed to frame campaign strategies. All the information regarding the meetings and rallies of the BJP were posted on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Other social networks like YouTube and WhatsApp too were extensively used to spread the information regarding Modi’s poll promises. The party effectively employed other new technology as well as offline communication channels to communicate with the Indian voters. The case also looks at the challenges faced by the newly elected government in taking forward its social media strategy.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the growing importance of digital marketing for organizations not involved in the business of selling goods and services.
• Analyze the reasons behind the growing importance of social media in the marketing communications strategies of companies and other organizations.
• Discuss and debate the advantages of social media channels when compared with the traditional media channels like television, radio, and print.
• Discuss the reasons behind the success of the BJP’s campaign for the 2014 general elections of India.
• Suggest the strategies that the new government could adopt to open communication with the public.

Keywords

Social media strategy, Information and Communication Technology, Communication, Big data,Marketing Communications, Digital marketing strategies, Political advertising, Shopping model for political campaigns, Campaign strategy, Election campaign, Social media messaging, Crowd sourcing, Narendra Modi, Barack Obama