Why this Political Strategist Thinks Metaverse can Change Political Campaigns

Political leaders communicate using a variety of cutting-edge technology in places where people connect, socialise, and obtain their news. In an effort to speak to millennial voters in their language and at their location, politicians are experimenting with AI films, video games, apps, and streaming services. Analytics India Magazine got in touch with the chief strategist of The Ideaz Factory, Sagar Vishnoi, to learn more about such experiments to reach today’s generation of voters.

Vishnoi is a political campaigner and a communications expert with key experience in political communications. He holds extensive knowledge in strategy and has developed and executed strategies for various politicians, political parties and governments.

When we enquired about the various experiments around political campaigns and the changing trajectory of political advertising, Vishnoi said that politicians are embracing a number of emerging media to reach voters. “From Barack Obama using social media in the 2009 campaign to Prime Minister Narendra Modi using holograms in 2012 and 2014, to Naveen Patnaik’s augmented reality campaign in 2019, to Manoj Tiwari’s VDR (visual dialogue replacement) campaign in 2020, and Arvind Kejriwal in 2020—the tech around political campaigns is evolving,” he said.

Shedding light on Meta and political campaigns in and around Metaverse, Vishnoi said, “Meta, including several other companies, has been experimenting with metaverse where people can create their avatars, attend events, and even buy something by crypto or exchange with NFTs. Since the world is now going towards the metaverse, it’s high time political parties also start embracing it.”

Responding to how the gaming industry can also contribute to political campaigns, Vishnoi said, “The ‘Build Back Better with Biden’ campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris used an in-game app with the video game ‘Fortnite’, where a video game was used to convey the campaign’s message. Along these lines, I’m positive that we are going to see political advertising or campaigns even in the Indian gaming industry too.”

But many a time, what’s happening around the western world, doesn’t really align with the Indian political industry. So, when we asked if the whole talk around the politics in Metaverse is mere speculation, Vishnoi explained, “No, it’s not speculation anymore. I’m pretty sure you’ll see one of the largest political parties using metaverse in their election campaign pretty soon. Leaders do need to reach out to voters for communicating their policies and to organise town halls and debate forums.”

Vishnoi then added that, “In addition to helping politicians engage with general voters, the metaverse may segment those people depending on their data and assist political parties in reaching voters abroad. But, I also believe this is likely to merely be a PR tool initially until future leaders understand its importance.”

Talking about the ability of Metaverse to help political parties in fundraising, Vishnoi said that the possibilities are immense. According to him, the platform can help political parties attain funds even from abroad. 

“The platform can also be used for fundraising. Let me tell you about an interesting museum I saw a few weeks back; it was a virtual museum of a particular political party, which was held in a very private manner, sorry I cannot disclose too many details.”

Vishnoi further explained, “What happened there actually, they were paintings of a political party, and of course, the political symbol of the party. So, I attended the museum via my VR headset and suddenly, I was looking at different paintings of leaders—nearly 70 different photos were put up there. There were pathways, halls and whatnot. It was a pretty immersive experience for me.”

Elaborating on the profitability of such events, Vishnoi said, “It also offered an option to buy the paintings, which I believe can be a great way for fundraising abroad. It was like a pilot programme by a political party, they are soon going to launch it, that’s confirmed.”

However, when asked if there is something to be done at the government level, Vishnoi was affirmative. 

“It must be made clear how they will handle the purchasing and selling of places in the metaverse using non-fungible tokens (NFTs); how the government will handle intellectual property rights, transaction taxes, false information, and regulatory and governance structures is still a mystery.”

Vishnoi believes that the government has to clarify how data localisation will work and how tech businesses, and even governments, would permit avatar identification. “Before entering the metaverse, governments, executives, and IT businesses need to consider a number of issues,” concluded Vishnoi.