The govt is planning to advertise women-oriented scheme such as Beti Padhao Beti Bachao, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Ujjwala on platforms that have women as the main audience like shopping, cookery or parenting channels.
New Delhi: To reach and target the desired audience better, the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC), the I&B Ministry’s arm responsible for government advertising, is planning to go beyond traditional way of reaching to the people i.e. through print, radio, TV and outdoor hoardings and advertise in websites and social media platforms like YouTube. One of the key reasons for looking beyond legacy media, officials said, was the ability of social media to better reach the target audience for particular schemes.
According to a report in The Indian Express, government’s spending on traditional media has sharply declined over the last five years — from Rs 1,200 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 264.78 crore in 2021-22.
The govt is planning to advertise women-oriented scheme such as Beti Padhao Beti Bachao, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Ujjwala on platforms that have women as the main audience like shopping, cookery or parenting channels. “These will be notified over the next few weeks,” I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra told The Indian Express.
Similarly, for schemes pertaining to youth, YouTube channels and non-news websites that have 18-28 year old youngsters as the main content consumers, will be targeted.
Govt expenditure on advertisement
The government spent over Rs 3,700 crore on advertisements between 2017 and 2022 in print media, electronic media, and outdoor publicity campaigns, according information provided by I&B Minister Anurag Thakur to Parliament in December 2022.
Similar efforts by states
In October, The Haryana cabinet approved the Digital Media Advertisement Policy-2023. The policy will accommodate the social media news channels and social media influencers for the purpose of highlighting the government developmental policies and programmes.
Under the policy, the empanelment advisory committee will fix, increase or revise the rates from time-to-time for each category, advertisement format, and social media platform, if required. It may ask social media news channels to share rates for other relevant advertisement formats as and when it deems fit. Once advertised, the social media news channels have to keep the ad for a month from the date of advertisement.