KOCHI: The Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation Programme (SVEEP) under the Election Commission of India has joined hands with Katha Ads to create voter-awareness campaigns in Kerala. “There is a narrative that casting a vote can’t make any difference to society. We are trying to counter that narrative,” says Ishan M, CEO of Katha.
The platform intends to share short videos of people with their friends and family, emphasising the importance of voting through Katha.
“This will complement SVEEP’s offline initiatives, enhancing the impact and reach of voter education efforts. One of the highlights is the ‘I Will Vote’ selfie campaign, encouraging voters to share these on social media,” he says.
Katha Ads was founded in 2021 by Ishan and Harsh V S, alumnae of Birla Institute of Technology And Science (BITS), Pilani. The goal of the firm was to humanise and intimately represent advertising. The platform has an audience of over 2 crore in Kerala, reaching over 75 per cent of the smartphone users in the state.
“We figured that digital word-of-mouth has immense potential to complement traditional advertising tools. When a friend or colleague talks about a product or service, there is a high probability of customers trusting their words. Through Katha, we aim to bring potential customers from the awareness stage to the consideration stage,” Ishan says.
According to the founders, in the past year, Katha has generated over 30 lakh organic engagements and recorded over 20 crore ad impressions.