This Summer, Tamil Nadu Makes Elections Cool

The Tamil Nadu Election Commission wants to woo the 22% of the electorate between 18-30 years of age.

From viral memes that make you laugh, to mobile apps that let you track the waiting time at the polling booth, elections in Tamil Nadu this May are all about making voting cool. (Photo: The Quint)

Making voting cool. (Photo: The Quint)

Political Critical Mass

16 May may not be the hottest day of the year. But for politicians in Tamil Nadu, the heat is definitely on! From wardrobe changes to changes in party affiliations, from total prohibition to the promise of making Toddy the official Tamil drink; it’s like a spawning ground of political rhetoric, to put it mildly. And it’s all part of the election season.

Coolifying Voting

With an average voter turnout of around 78%, this time round, the Tamil Nadu Election Commission wants to woo the 22% of the electorate who are between 18-30 years of age and by default, social media savvy. That’s over 65 lakh youngsters. Enter OPN Media.

A Chennai-based ad agency, OPN Advertising launched the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), among other major brands. The team may now be in disarray, but in popular Tamil culture, its impact is indelible.

The OPN Advertising team. (Photo: The Quint)

Memes, Cultural Tropes and Pop-Art Explainers

The campaign for the EC was split up into three phases, beginning with ‘register your name’ on Pongal Day (15 Jan) with a ‘Don’t Be like...’ meme. The other two messages are ‘Don’t sell your vote’ and #TN100Percent.

All of the voting related issues from a change in address to a lost voter ID and everything in between were addressed through posters soaked liberally in Tamil-pop culture and Kollywood. The fact that the EC rose to the challenge of responding to the hundreds of daily queries promptly and efficiently, released an app that lets you register and track the waiting time at your booth, helped the campaign gather steam.

The Chief Election Officer, Rajesh Lakhoni who is the driving force behind the initiative, was skeptical at first. But the post went viral, and a whole new trend was set.

Big Fact

Between 1 May till Election Day, everyone in the state who’s on Facebook and YouTube will see messages/ads from the TN Elections CEO reminding them to vote. The EC is in talks with Google too, to come up with a reminder or a doodle on D-day.

Star Power + Good Content = Runaway Success

The TN Elections CEO page on Facebook now rocks over 1,15,000 fans, a daily engagement of at least 5000 and an average reach of over 1,30,000 per post. This is in part, thanks to the celebrity videos by actors Surya, Siddharth and Nasser, and cricketers Ashwin Ravichandran and Dinesh Karthik, all of whom did it for free.

Fans in the Driver’s Seat

But, one of the things Chokkan and Bala, who own and run OPN, borrowed from their previous social media success with Chennai Super Kings, was to put the fans in the driver’s seat. ‘Citizen Initiative’ videos, audio and images regularly find their way onto the official page and now form the bulk of the content.

With CSK, we wanted to create a team that ‘belonged to the fans’. That’s exactly what we’re doing here as well. Some of the videos that we get on WhatsApp are simply phenomenal!

Chokkan, Creative Director, OPN Media

Everyone Wants to (Ask You to) Vote

As of today, it’s not just on social media that the EC’s campaign has found resonance. RJs from Radio Mirchi and other local FMs re-iterate the same messages on prime time shows. Aavin Milk packets and packaging in eatery chains like A2B (Adyar Ananda Bhavan) proudly display ‘May 16th’ and the EC logo.

With just 15 days to go, everyone in TN wants to vote. But who to vote for? Well, that’s tricky.

(Vikram Venkateswaran is a freelance writer, TV producer and media consultant. Headings, titles and captions are his kryptonite. He just moved to Chennai and hopes the city likes him and is nice to him.)