India

Foreign minister S Jaishankar, who is usually jet-setting across the world and has built quite a reputation for hard-talk with his counterparts in other countries, was seen in a gentler avatar at an interactive session with influencers last month.

Sporting a red tilak on his forehead, he patiently listened as an earnest young YouTuber described his body language and manner as “friendly” and completely unlike a stereotypical minister.

Jaishankar smiled and replied, “I will ask other ministers to be friendly also.”With another set of assembly elections round the corner and things heating up for Lok Sabha 2024, the rush is not just towards a TV studio for a traditional fireside chat or door-to-door to shake hands and kiss babies.

Instead, many political strategists are focusing on influencers who can spread the message nestled between tech tips and travel videos.

And it’s happening across the aisle.

In January, Kamiya Jani, who hosts Sunday Brunch on her YouTube channel Curly Tales and has over 2 million subscribers, discussed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s first pay cheque and his fitness regime, while in February, she exchanged notes with Aaditya Thackeray of Shiv Sena (UBT) on his favourite eating joints in Mumbai.Ranveer Allahbadia had several ministers such as Rajeev Chandrasekhar on his showRanveer Allahabadia, whose channel BeerBiceps has a subscriber base of 5.67 million, had a bevy of ministers including Jaishankar on his show.

While commerce minister Piyush Goyal shared how late PM A B Vajpayee taught him how to play marbles in his childhood, IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar spoke about how PM Modi mentors his ministers and is invested in their success.

The channel clarified that these interviews were not a paid promotion.Political watchers say that while the use of influencers, paid or unpaid, is not new, it has become far more widespread than before as can be seen by an unprecedented rise of senior politicians clearing their schedules for YouTubers.

For instance, YouTuber Raj Shamani did interviews with Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari in quick succession.Political satirist Akash Banerjee, whose channel The Deshbhakt has 3m followers, says that politicians have woken up to the fact that the youth vote is a crucial demographic.

“If the 2014 election was about Twitter and the 2019 poll was dominated by WhatsApp, then 2024 will be fought with influencers,” he says.Influencer marketing firm Zefmo’s recent report says that organised influencer marketing sector will breach Rs 3,000 crore in 2023-24 with revenue share of micro-influencers increasing from 9% in 2022-23 to 14% in 2023-24.

It estimates that India could become the largest base of influencers in the world.

Cheap data and an increase in smartphone coverage has played a part in increasing their reach.

“There is a very large audience between 18-35 years of age that is getting their news and views this way,” says Banerjee.The Rajasthan government has already taken a step to formalise the arrangement of hiring influencers.

On June 26, it issued a notification stating that influencers can get Rs 10,000 to Rs 5 lakh per month for posting government ads on their channels.

Influencers have been categorised on the basis of followers: those with a million-plus following are designated category A, while those with under a million followers fall in category B and category C is those with 100,000 and so on.And it’s not just the big creators who are being courted.

Zefmo CEO Shudeep Majumdar says that the firm recognised the growing importance of micro-influencers and has since used them at a hyper-local level in state elections.

Majumdar’s company has worked in 15 states in the last six years.

“It enables a more focused conversation on the issues that the candidate wants to highlight while giving content credibility and relatability.

It is also very cost effective,” he says.Political campaigners say there is a wide variety of influencers used, and most of them don’t even specialise in political content.

“We have employed people as varied as wildlife tour operators in Assam, paanwalas in Bihar and the members of a prominent club in West Bengal.

Just their ideology should match with that of the candidate, and they should be able to build an ecosystem that will spread the content ahead,” the campaigner says.

Such micro-influencers are paid around Rs 10,000-15,000 per campaign.

Macro-influencers can get up to a couple of lakhs.Abbin Theepura from P-Marq (Politique Marquer), which has handled political campaigns since 2019, says that Covid pushed up the demand for social media influencers.

He argues that WhatsApp groups have proved to be too impersonal and instead an influencer posting original content draws a deeper audience.

“Social media influencers can be picked on the basis of language, genre, reach and target audience.

It gives a chance for a politician to show his informal, personal side,” he says.

It also yields granular data.

“We know how many times a video has been watched and by how many,” he adds.However, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies director Sanjay Kumar describes influencers as just another option in a larger bouquet, and says its impact is being overestimated.

“The level of seriousness with which people look at such content has gone down and there is a sense of scepticism about it.”While the popularity of this route is growing, can it replicate the warmth of an in-person interaction or the credibility of a media interview? Time will tell.





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