YouTube, a popular video-sharing platform, is being used by political parties to influence voter behavior. The present exploratory study analyses the use of YouTube as a promotional tool during the Indian Parliamentary Elections 2014-the first social media based elections in India. This study examines 92 advertisements of Indian National Congress (INC) and 55 advertisements of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on YouTube for the following parameters: general characteristics of each video, types of message appeal used and the dominant content of the advertisements. The findings revealed that INC emphasized more on the identity of their party while BJP stressed on their candidate. Furthermore, the YouTube advertisements were dominated by positive campaigning. The parties appealed to the voters through logic and strongly addressed various national and developmental issues. Both the parties strategically expressed the optimistic future of the country under the dynamic leadership of their respective prime ministerial candidates. The findings of the study have important implications for political parties, political marketers and lawmakers as social media has occupied a significant place among young and educated voters and acts as a stimulant to voter engagement. The article adds value to the existing studies of political advertising and communication literature by theoretically adhering to Kaid and Johnston's (2001) concept of 'videostyle', integrating the functional theory of political discourse, and appending the visual culture concept to political domain.
Purpose
Although the concept of political party brand personality has received substantial recognition in the political marketing literature, however, no study as yet has contributed in identifying a causal relationship between the party brand personality and voter behaviour. Therefore, this paper aims to address this gap in the academic literature by determining the relationship between the multifaceted advertising-brand personality-satisfaction-loyalty constructs in political context.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample for the study consisting of 930 responses was drawn from the major cities of Punjab state in India through multistage stratified random sampling. AMOS-based structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model.
Findings
Results revealed that voters’ attitude towards political advertisements had a significant effect on their satisfaction and loyalty when brand personality had a mediating role in this effect. Additionally, the influence of party brand personality on satisfaction and loyalty of voters was different for the selected four political parties.
Practical implications
The study carries strong implications for the political parties and the political marketers to develop pertinent marketing and communication strategies that are consistent with their personality traits, with an endeavour to enhance the satisfaction and loyalty of voters.
Originality/value
The most imperative discovery of this study is to determine the mediating role of party brand personality on relationship between political advertisements, voter satisfaction and party loyalty. Such a study of an emerging economy contributes significantly to the marketing theory and practice owing to the diversity and fragmentation across India with respect to religion, caste, creed and race of voters.
The present study is an endeavour to broaden the research on the use of social media websites in political campaigns beyond the ambit of developed countries. This article focuses on scrutinizing the role of YouTube during 2014 Indian Parliamentary elections-the first 'social media'-based elections in India. The methodology of data collection incorporates the content analysis of 147 YouTube-based audiovisual political advertisements, associating the message characteristics (natures, types and appeals) with message reach (number of views) and viewer engagement (types of comments). The results reveal the failure of the viewers to recognize the association between message reach and viewers' engagement with message characteristics, confirming the 'marginal' use of YouTube. However, the study recommends the incorporation of contemporary, Internet-based social media advertising tools along with the traditional tools in the future political marketing campaigns. This article is instrumental for political marketers and consultants in devising political marketing strategies.
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