Exclusive | #iVOTESelfie campaign will make voting cool: Harish Bijoor

As the biggest democracy in the world has entered the election season, Indian media is kept busy all through the general elections 2014. Campaigning for elections by candidates has moved on-ground rallies and constituency visits. Political advertisement in print, television and radio could be viable options for candidates, but all this may come across as passé. If one observes the current election season, the campaigns have gone beyond traditional mediums have come on your Facebook, Twitter, Youtube pages. Also, the efforts to woo new voters and to encourage existing voter base; is not only the political parties and brands in the race, but also individuals who wish to change the current political scenarios in the country.

Walking on the same path, Harish Bijoor, brand strategy specialist and CEO at Harish Bijoor Consults Inc (HBCI). Sort after as a social commenter Bijoor has taken a unique step to, fuel the fire of change that is running across the nation.  

Bijoor has launched the #iVOTEselfie campaign on his Twitter handle @harishbijoor that asks people to take a selfie of them, flaunting their inked finger.

Adgully caught up with Harish Bijoor to know more about the campaign.

While the campaign sounds interesting, sharing the rationale behind the #ivoteselfie campaign, Bijoor said, “The latest trend in our digital lives is the ‘selfie’. Therefore, at election time, in a nation where city folk refuse to vote as robustly as they must, I thought of using this trend to advantage. The idea is to make voting a style statement. The selfie is a style statement. Mix both. And bingo, here is the #iVOTEselfie. The idea is simple. On Election Day, please don't go on that picnic or party. First go out and vote. And after you vote, get out of the polling booth, take a selfie of yourself and your loved ones, and post it on my Twitter handle @harishbijoor. Use the hashtag #iVOTEselfie. I intend to make a whole big collage of it all at the end of all the polling dates and display it digitally on my Twitter handle and physically in Bangalore city at a prominent location. It’s my small and humble way as a citizen, trying to get more voters to come out and vote!”

As the campaign is predominantly led by Twitter, it seems to be a very cost-effective campaign. Speaking on this, Bijoor said, “Yes, this is a very cost effective campaign! I have had the support of Radio One 94.3, the support of publications that have carried my appeal, I have sent out appeals on my twitter handle, and I have had re-tweets along with which there is an SMS campaign that is doing the rounds. In this day and age of the digital and social medium at help, campaigns such as this can be very cost-effective”.

Bijoor claims to be an essentially ‘Twitter’ person. “I love its brevity; one needs to get everything done in 140 characters!” he said. Speaking about how other social media and digital platforms could be used for this campaign, he said, “We live in a day and age when everyone is impatient. Digizens do not have time to read detailed long blogs, or long FB posts. Twitter is ideal! If you like it, you will participate; if you don't you will dump it. No time lost!”

Speaking about his expectations with regard to this campaign he said, “My goal is to get maximum people in our cities to come out and vote. The idea is to make voting more than a boring chore. Voting is important. We need to participate in our democracy actively. We must not outsource governance. We must in-source it. The first step in this process is stepping out to vote!”

Lastly, as the country is still in the voting process, speaking of the responses he said received for this campaign said, “The big polling dates are still ahead. However, as of now, I have a total of 142 selfies received. I look forward to more. Lots and lots more”!

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