Cong chooses poll ad agency, picks n-deal as campaign opener

New Delhi, October 9: The Congress has decided to launch its election ad campaign with the civilian nuclear deal. The deal will be the focus of the first batch of political ads by Crayons, the Delhi-based advertising agency that beat eight other agencies, including co-finalist JWT, to the Congress account last week. The agency expects a firm word on the projection of the nuclear issue from Congress poll managers by Saturday.

The Congress spin team feels the party needs to be more aggressive and communicative on the nuclear deal. It is an issue with potential to engender a feel-good factor straddling the many divisions in a fragmented electorate, top sources in the party said.

The Congress faces five assembly elections besides the Lok Sabha polls over the next few months. Its other campaign issues will be decided in the next “seven to ten days”, says Kunal Lalani, chairman and managing director of Crayons.

But some things are already known. For example, the Congress will continue with the focus on the “aam aadmi” that brought it success in 2004. “We think the plank the party chose in 2004 was apt”, says Lalani, whose agency is understood to have bagged the Congress job for its ability to “think in Hindi”, rather than “thinking in English and then translating it into a Hindi presentation”.

Indications of the Congress mind were seen in the four issues on which shortlisted agencies made their presentations to the party on September 23. These issues were, in no particular order, internal security, inflation, youth leadership and achievements of the UPA government.

By hiring an agency to chalk out its media and communications strategy well in advance of the general elections, the Congress may have indicated an eagerness to prepare early, deviating from past form in what is generally seen as an area of strength for its main rival, the BJP.