1) Arvind Sawant, an NDA candidate for South Mumbai, ran a social media campaign using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and email to communicate with voters. 2) The campaign's objectives were to increase Sawant's online popularity, engage with influencers on issues, and keep voters informed of his rallies. 3) Sawant saw significant increases in his social media following and engagement through hashtags like #VoteForChange and #ShivSena4Namo.

1. Campaign Case Study:
Arvind Sawant
(NDA MP Candidate of South
Mumbai)

2. The usage of social media
in Indian politics is
continually growing; with an
increasing number of
politicians in the country
taking advantage of the
medium to communicate
instantly with thousands of
people. Arvind Sawant (NDA
MP Candidate of South
Mumbai for National
General Elections 2014) was
one amongst the many.
Introduction

3. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are three basic social media platforms
that most politicians use to amplify their presence and clout.
However, in addition to the regular mediums of communication, Arvind
Sawant did things a little differently by incorporating Whatsapp to
communicate with the masses.

4. Even political parties have accounts,
which they use to post information
on political campaigns, press
releases and other news updates.
This was the primary reason why
Togglehead decided to use Whatsapp
to further increase our accessibility
to the voters & have an effective
two-way dialogue. The
incorporation of Whatsapp
complemented the other prongs of
the social media approach perfectly.

5.  Creating a strong online presence.
 Increasing the online popularity points
of Arvind Sawant as opposed to his
fellow opposing candidates; Milind
Deora (2 time MP from South-
Mumbai), Bala Nandgaokar, Meera
Sanyal, etc.
 Ensuring regular activity on his
Facebook page.
 Initiating discussions and making the
page a medium to communicate the
problems.
Objectives

6.  Engaging in conversation with influencers on Twitter.
 Increasing his follower count on twitter & indulging in conversation on
poignant issues.
 Highlighting key moments of rallies with live tweet ups.
 Keeping the public updated on his various rallies via Whatsapp.
Togglehead decided to focus on a single objective – Making Arvind
Sawant a name to remember, increasing his overall social media
engagement and attracting more South-Mumbai based followers to his
Facebook and Twitter pages and to begin creating a dialogue on these
pages.

7. Challenges
The stumbling stone was that Mr. Sawant had a target audience being
more Congress centric & lack of awareness about his stand on various
poignant issues. The bigger challenge was that the whole social media
campaign had to be started from scratch since Arvind Sawant did not
have any existing social media accounts.

8. But the whole team was eager as well
as excited to jump in for the
opportunity. A win would directly
impact us as A.G Sawant was
contesting the election from our
constituency. Also, there were a lot of
communal issues which we had to tip-
toe around but it was an obstacle we
were eager to overcome.
A part from the internal obstacles, a truly herculean task was that
Arvind Sawant who isn’t an extrovert & had to coaxed out of his shell
to show a side of himself that his supporters did not really know.

9. The campaign kicked off with the tags #VoteForChange &
#ShivSena4Namo and these tags instantly connected to Mumbaikars.
Each post and creative carried both the tags and within a small span of
time, fans were using the tags extensively.
Implementation

10. The posts were informative and
interactive. The content
strategy that was decided upon
focused on the following:
 The Facebook posts were about the daily rallies he attended & the
policies he planned to implement if elected, along with detailed
daily recaps of the day’s events. Arvind Sawant was positioned as
the ‘Clean Politician’ who was ‘Approachable’ & the man who would
spearhead change & improve the situation of the common man. In
addition, Facebook was used as a means to allow a healthy dialogue to
be facilitated between the supporters & Arvind Sawant.

11.  From an advertising stand point, South Mumbai users were
targeted, those who were inclined towards politics who liked pages
related to Congress, Narendra Modi & Shiv Sena. An endeavor to
sway the masses with the clear unwavering message that he was the
man who would restore vibrancy to Mumbai.

12.  For Twitter, a more direct approach was adopted. While other
candidates indulged in mindless negative curation, the @AGSawant
account focused on keeping the message consistent & unwavering,
speaking in a straight forward way rather than rehashing the
debacles of the past. #ShivSena4Namo trended in India a day
before the Mumbai Elections.

13.  ‘#VoteForChange’ was chosen mainly because the voters of South
Mumbai were desperately searching for a change & the account helped
this hashtag be used more than 100,000 times in a span of 2 weeks. As
seen clearly by the landslide victory of the NDA that the people could
clearly identify with it.
 ‘#ShivSena4Namo’ was a very popular hashtag that got an Indian
trend on twitter a day before the general election. This was used with
the sole intention of capitalizing on the Modi fever that had engulfed
the nation.
 The goal from twitter was to utilize various influencers at our disposal
to increase the follower count on the account. In synchronisation with
the BJP-Maharashtra Wing & other noted political handles like Aaditya
Thackeray, Mangal Prabhat Lodha & Shaina NC, the account was able
to gain substantial traction on twitter.

14. Whatsapp was used primarily as a means for a comfortable, two-way,
direct dialogue between the followers and Arvind Sawant. The content
strategy for Arvind Sawant’s Whatsapp marketing was to keep the
viewers informed about the venue & time for the various rallies that
Arvind Sawant was going to attend. This seemed to be a highly effective
means of communication as the number of supporters showing up for
the rallies increased by over 20%.

15. In addition, Whatsapp was also used as a means to share the Party Manifesto
with the supporters and allow them to question Arvind Sawant about his stand on
various issues. Arvind Sawant was asked poignant questions relating to the status
of the Grant Road skywalk and the on-going issues surrounding the Campa-
Cola building demolition in Worli. He answered all these questions to the
satisfaction of the voters which possibly helped in converting undecided voters
into NDA loyalists.
Whatsapp was also used to showcase the various creatives & graphic designs
that were highlighted on Facebook & Twitter to create absolute synergy across
all social media platforms. Whatsapp as a means of communication proved to be
the hero of the campaign since we received over 15,000 supporters reaching out
to us primarily through this platform.
An Emailer campaign was also created which was used for the purpose of
circulating the NDA manifesto to a database of over 10,000 voters in the South
Mumbai region which helped greatly in informing the voters about the various
policies that Arvind Sawant planned to implement for the development of South
Mumbai.

17.  #VoteForChange
The flagship campaign was the
underlying message for the
entire election duration,
#VoteForChange was a high
traffic volume hashtag that was
in keeping with the overall
sentiment of the entire nation
going into the election. The
country was seeking change &
with the Modi wave taking
India by storm it was felt that
promoting the BJP motto of
‘Change’ would receive a
favorable reception, a strategy
that worked to our advantage.
Campaigns

18. After much ideation an overall consensus was reached & the
#VoteForChange started making its rounds across the various social media
platforms namely (Facebook & Twitter). It was met with an
overwhelming reception within days. In addition the graphic concepts
designed were incorporated into the offline promotion as well.
•#ShivSena4NaMo
In synergy with the nation’s efforts to make Narendra Modi the Prime
Minister there was a concentrated effort to educate the voters of the
South Mumbai constituency that a vote for Arvind Sawant would aid
getting Narendra Modi’s NDA alliance into power at the centre. The
focus was on ensuring that there was a direct association in the mind of
the voters between Narendra Modi’s victory hinged on winning every
seat & when they voted for Shiv Sena (Arvind Sawant) they were voting
for Narendra Modi.

19. Results
Facebook
Fan increase: from 668 fans to over 22,093 fans in 1 month
Percentage increase: Over 3207%
Twitter
Follower increase: from 15 followers to over 1001 followers
in 1 month
Percentage increase: Over 6573.33%
Whatsapp
Over 3500 individual South Mumbai voters got in touch with
Arvin dSawant’s Whatspp account
#VoteForChange was used about 63,421 times

20. In conclusion all the digital marketing efforts bore some substantial fruit since
Mr. Arvind Sawant won the election for the South Mumbai Lok Sabha seat by
1,28,000 votes. His social media presence helped increase awareness with a
steady stream of engagement across various social media platforms.
The goal was to create a figure that people could trust & based on the result -
Mission accomplished!
Conclusion