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Features


        to spread awareness at the ground level. District
        level collaborations with cinema theatres, petrol
        pumps, market associations and shopping malls
        are effective. The transport department plays an
        extremely important role in reaching out at national,
        state and district level. Similarly the education
        department, telecom service providers and social
        media platforms use their wide reach to target
        different sections of society.
           With an aim to connect to the masses, ECI
        associates itself with non-partisan national       Indian Railways carrying messages for voters
        celebrities from various fields and appoints
        them as ECI’s national icons. Similarly renowned   being traversed by the train) motivating over 920
        individuals in States are appointed as State   million voters of the country. The campaign logo
        icons. Voter awareness is taken up through these   ‘Desh Ka Mahatyohar’ (Great Festival of Democracy)
        icons, leveraging the ability of these inspirational   was also embedded in National and regional
        personalities to form an authentic connection with   languages.
        the voter.
           Numerous partnerships and collaborations were   Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
        undertaken during the Lok Sabha 2019 elections. A   Similar efforts were undertaken with the
        few examples are as follows:                  Metro-Rail in New Delhi to create awareness of
                                                      the elections. The aim was to appeal to urban
        Democracy on Wheels                           commuters and combat urban apathy. Election-

           The Election Commission of India and Indian   related messages were vinyl wrapped on the outside
        Railways joined together to vinyl wrap trains   and displayed on every available surface inside
        with the hashtag #GoVote in the 2019 Lok Sabha   metro coaches. These were linked with well-known
        Election. Consequently, numerous trains, covering   TV shows and cartoons with an urban middle-class
        the length and breadth of the entire country, were   audience in mind.
        used to spread the message of voter awareness. The
        focus was to make sure that everyone is aware of   FM Radio
        the importance of voting. The vinyl wrap featured   A nationwide voter awareness and motivation
        ECI’s national icons like renowned actor of Hindi   campaign titled ‘Ab Watan Dabayega Button’
        Cinema, Aamir Khan and Olympic Medalist Mary   (The nation will now press the voting button) was
        Kom and other ECI state icons (as per the state   launched in collaboration with 93.5 Red FM. Several
                                                      Red FM RJs were identified as Youth Ambassadors
                                                                    in their respective cities by CEO
                                                                    offices. The RJs were trained on
                                                                    electoral processes and they
                                                                    reached out to an audience of
                                                                    approximately 14,21,000 listeners
                                                                    every day during the campaign.
                                                                       The popular radio stations
                                                                    decided to go all-out to not only
                                                                    boost the number of voters in
                                                                    their coverage region but also to
                                                                    encourage ethical and informed


        14  |  VoICE International   |   October 2022
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