Pavan R Chawla examines the content and marketing strategy that has made Star Maa a strong player in the television industry, resulting in a remarkable performance during #Week13of2023.
During this week, Star Maa emerged as the top-rated channel thanks to the success of its newly launched fiction show Naga Panchami, which was the biggest launch in India in the last three years. The channel dominated across all time bands, with Star Maa Movies even outperforming a Telugu GEC. Additionally, Star Maa Music had a strong showing, cementing its position as a leading brand nationally.
So the Happy #Week13of2023 driven by #TeluguEntertainment #TeluguGEC #TeluguSerials #StarMaa and #StarMaaSerials, merits a look under the hood to see how Star Maa creates, drives and build the best and most engaging content for viewers to provide strong marketer- and brand delight too.
Let’s see.
First and foremost, Star Maa, which dominates the Telugu TV market, has to be the most outstanding among its bold siblings in the first family of regional TV channel clusters in India.
Part of the Disney Star group, Star Maa has been a leader in Andhra Pradesh/Telangana (AP/TS) for over 226 weeks. Recently, the channel launched multiple new shows, two of which ended up being the highest-rated launches not only in AP/TS but also in India over the past three years.
It was precocious that Brahmamudi – which was Star Maa’s first launch this year (7.30 pm on Jan 24th 2023) – was replacing the landmark show of the Telugu TV Industry, Karthika Deepam, which had ruled at the No.1 Position in AP/TS for 201 consecutive weeks after its launch. Karthika Deepam too had been India’s Number One show for many weeks till its closure. But Brahmamudi went a step ahead to become the best-rated launch in India in the past 3 years, delivering average AMAs of 10.37 Million (Avg Rating of 1.16) in its launch week itself.
Brahmamudi is the story of Raj and Kavya and their love. The fact that Star Maa decided to permanently fade to black, as it were, a show (Karthika Deepam) that had been #1 in AP/TS for 201 consecutive weeks, to replace it with a new show, was both, precociousness and confidence personified.
Precocious, because it replaced a Language-Region #1 show with a new show.
And confidence, because Star Maa had the belief in its content- and awareness-creation abilities. Both of which were eventually vindicated because Brahmamudi went on to become the best-rated launch in India in the past three years.
Two months after it had launched Brahmamudi, Star Maa launched another new show, Naga Panchami (at 8 pm on 27th March 2023). And Naga Panchami too replaced another iconic show Intinti Gruhalakshmi, which had consistently been in the Top 3 shows in the market for 127 weeks.
And Naga Panchami’s launch too created history.
It replaced Brahmamudi as the biggest launch in India in the past 3 years, delivering Average AMAs of 11.56 Mn (Average Rating of 1.3).
With these two launches (Naga Panchami and Brahma Mudi) Star Maa currently has three shows in the Top 5 Shows across India, and occupies the Top 4/4 positions in AP/TS; with the Top 3 shows being less than six months old.
| Top 5 Launches in India last 3 years | ||||
| Description | Channel | Week | Time | Avg Rat% |
| NAGAPANCHAMI | STAR Maa | 2023W13 | 20:00 | 1.3 |
| BRAHMA MUDI | STAR Maa | 2023W4 | 19:30 | 1.16 |
| VANATHAI POLA | Sun Tv | 2020W49 | 19:30 | 1.16 |
| IMLI | STAR Plus | 2020W46 | 20:30 | 1.05 |
| NAAGIN 5 | Colors | 2020W33 | 20:00 | 1.04 |
| All India Top 10 shows in Wk 13’23 | |||
| Time | Description | Channel | Avg Rat% |
| 19:30 | BRAHMA MUDI | STAR Maa | 1.37 |
| 20:00 | NAGAPANCHAMI | STAR Maa | 1.30 |
| 20:30 | MANN SUNDAR | Dangal | 1.27 |
| 20:30 | KRISHNA MUKUNDA MURARI | STAR Maa | 1.23 |
| 21:00 | SINDOOR KI KEEMAT | Dangal | 1.15 |
Source : BARC, All India, U+R 2+, SD Avg Rat%, Wk 13’23
| Top 5 Shows in Wk 13’23 | ||
| Rank | Program | Avg |
| 1 | BRAHMA MUDI | 11.39 |
| 2 | KRISHNA MUKUNDA MURARI | 10.78 |
| 3 | NAGAPANCHAMI | 10.34 |
| 4 | GUPPEDANTHA MANASU | 9.09 |
| 5 | TRINAYANI | 8.72 |
Source : BARC, AP/TS, U15-50ABC, SD+HD, Wk13’23 ,Avg Rat%
How do Content and Marketing help make Star Maa a strong hits train>
Going by Naga Panchami, top on display was Star Maa’s unique understanding and delivery of very sticky content. Obviously, the seed to an engaging, sticky show is in its creative concept.
The story was about a Naagin, a snake. Now, fans of movie and television dramas had only seen Naagins as vengeful and viscerally vicious. But Naga Panchami, through the story of the journey of Panchami, morphed that clichéd Naagin character into a protecting, nurturing snake superhero with a kind heart and an iron will when it came to protecting both – humans and snakes.
That appealed to the audiences that must have watched multiple Naag / Snake series and movies filled with with revenge, but saw, for othe first time, a show featuring a Naagin but depicting a great love story rather than a revenge drama. With Panchami being the guardian angel for society, like a veritable snake superhero, Naga Panchami was actually based on a character which, along with its motivations, was the exact opposite of the archetypical historical cliché.
So, a unique, never-before concept.
With a good cast, the channel deployed the lineage and experience of converting a strong concept into a well-produced show that has appealed from Day One to every viewer in a family. In a market where television-viewing is still largely a family affair, and hence content must be sensitive and not edgy.
And while sticky content is crucial, always, the awareness-creation and building of the viewer- and advertiser-anticipation and delight through the proven marketing by Star Maa, too, have proved equally important.
Let’s look at how the powerful magnet of sticky content received strong marketing to become the best launched show in 3 years, including amongst those launched by Hindi GECs. Which is truly interesting and significant.
First, here’s an interactive YouTube dual story for Nagapanchami
All the launches, including those of Brahamamudi and Naga Panchami, deployed unique ways to connect with their audiences through some interesting marketing activations that drove higher interest to sample the show.
Brahmamudi launched during the Sankranti period, and had seen its lead artists Manas and Deepika Rangaraju and other popular artists including Hamida, Sekhar, visiting various towns and participating in the rangoli competition that was organised in six different towns of APTS by Star Maa.
During the festival, Star Maa connected with and informed its viewers through a campaign that allowed their their core audience participate in Rangoli competition event, and also to meet and greet the popular stars.
Building on this, Star Maa also had promotional bytes from Shah Rukh Khan talking about Kavya and her journey with his movie promotional activity.
Some interesting digital activations including #BrahmamudiMomentsWithStarMaa received good response where the netizens shared their Brahmamudi (nuptial knot) moments on Social Media.
Nagapanchami too had a unique campaign approach that took it closer to audiences. With APTS consumers believing the Naga Devathalu (Snake God), Star Maa organized Naga Pooja at several temples across the Telugu State where relevant audience were also invited to offer prayers to the Snake God along with the show’s lead pair and other popular artists.
Some of the temples also had visibility elements added about the show. An interactive YT video that had a puzzle to solve helping Panchami (the lead protagonist) find her way out created good engaging conversations and increased interest levels for the show.
So it’s been a powerful mix of Star Maa’s rich lineage in content creation and marketing for customer awareness to grow the market through a strong emotional connect with viewers. Apparently bringing back loyalty to TV viewing with a belief in Star Maa’s content quality. Truly, Star Maa’s precociousness and confidence have been right on target.