AAP ads go in-house to save money for key schemes

After announcing subsidies worth crores of rupees for power and water, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is looking at ways to reduce its running costs.

The party is designing its own advertisements rather than asking private firms to do it in order to save money that can be spent on other key areas.

“Right now, whenever the government decides to come out with any advertisement we invite creative suggestions from empanelled agencies and the best one is selected. The agency selected gets a 15% commission from the media companies that publish the advertisements. Apart from making the ad, they do related work. In a few cases, the government will itself create the advertisement content. The agency that offers us the maximum discount will be given the contract of doing the rest of the work,’ said a senior Delhi government official.

Sources said the new advertisement announcing the AAP’s water and subsidies — Jo kaha so kiya (we did what we promised) — published last Tuesday was made internally.

An AAP leader said a number of volunteers were likely to help the government in designing advertisements rather than outsourcing them.

Apart from the print media, the AAP government will come up with advertisements for the outdoor media.

As part of its austerity drive, the government has restricted the funds to be spent on food and beverage during interactions with the media.

“If we can save money by adopting these small measures, what is the harm? At the same time we are allowing our own creative team to show its talent through the exercise. Even the ads that are running on FM stations are in-house products,” said an AAP leader.