Cabinet Minister of Chhattisgarh, Shri Prem Prakash Pandey already enjoyed a great reputation in his home town of Bhilai. His party workers respect and love him and his work spoke for itself. However, he was battling the problem of reaching out to the audience via digital. When we were introduced to him, we had not worked with a political client but since he was the Higher Education Minister we wanted to give it a shot.
We began by doing surveys in Bhilai to truly understand what the people of Bhilai thought of him. We conducted polls and sat down with voters and party workers in small focus groups. We realized soon that he already had an image of a powerful leader, so our objective now was to resposition him as not only a strong commander-in-chief but as a people’s leader easily approachable to his constituency.
Using social media to connect with his target audience was an obvious decision. We gave his website a fresh new look and gave visitors ample of means to connect with him directly, via the Website, Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook we started a bi-weekly live interaction session. People of Bhilai were encouraged to ask Prem Prakashji questions via Facebook and every other week he addressed all the questions in a session we named #BaatBhilaiKi. The live sessions became so popular that Congress leaders and even the CM started similar conversations.
After the success of Baat Bhilai Ki we began to work on his image. We wanted to make him look more approachable yet not loose his charisma, derived from him being a dynamic leader. We built the #IamBhilai campaign from scratch. The campaign hoardings and posts put more focus on the common man than the minister himself. This was a first for the city of Bhilai, for the first time they felt that they were being empowered. The I am Bhilai phrase became a part of the common lingo.
We will have to wait for the election results on the 11th of December, 2018.
