Parties in Tamil Nadu, especially the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), picked up huge digital slots, particularly on YouTube, this Assembly election, when compared to previous years.
The DMK started flooding YouTube and websites from February, while the AIADMK started a few days later.
A source from the DMK’s IT wing said with people working from home after the COVID-19 outbreak, YouTube’s outreach was quite high.
“We were dominating with our content early March itself. We were dominant at different points of time. We picked space in almost every video that we thought people would watch. We also ensured that we are present in the videos of certain influencers,” he said.
“Yes, we have doubled our presence on YouTube, compared to previous elections. The prime reason for this is that after COVID-19, the consumption of information from YouTube, in particular, has increased,” Aspire K. Swaminathan, secretary, IT wing of the AIADMK in Chennai, said. He added that during the lockdown, several popular youngsters took to YouTube, and were now having several millions of followers. It made sense to pick up space in between those channels, he said, adding that YouTube had been successful and the number of views had been quite high.
The DMK’s ‘Stalindhaan vararu vidiyal thara poraru’ song and the AIADMK’s ‘Vetri nadai podum Tamilagame’ were among the popular videos that popped up this election season.
