Star India’s flagship entertainment channel, Star Plus, has gone in for a makeover with a new logo and tagline – ‘Rishte Wahi, Soch Nayi’ (old relationship, new thinking).
The new logo, says Star India CEO Uday Shankar, “is a ruby star which is feminine, strong, full of energy and life. The white swoosh, lit from within, represents inner strength and quest for fulfilment."
But is the makeover just a cosmetic one? Piyush Pandey, chairman of advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather, who oversaw the makeover, says for an outsider, the brand reinvention might look cosmetic, but it is not. “The loyal viewer will feel that the channel is trying to keep pace with the Star Plus woman rather than trying to change her”, he says.
O&M has worked on three TVCs (TV commercials) – to be shown across the Star India network. One of the TVCs shows an old couple playing with their granddaughter.
After a while, the doting father of the child tells his wife that they would have missed out on the happiness had he not heeded her advice to adopt the child.
Pandey says the film brings out the idea that Indians are now more open to new thoughts. “We worked around the theme that Star Plus would not merely follow traditions. People are now open to the idea of adopting a child and improve their lives. The plan was to showcase how people could bring in happiness by adopting a new idea,” he adds.
According to estimates, the makeover has been done at a cost of around Rs 20 crore.
The new logo is just one part of Star Plus’ makeover exercise. Chief operating officer, Star India, Sanjay Gupta says that the new programming line-up on Star Plus with three new shows and blockbuster movie offerings will strengthen the brand and improve loyalty amongst viewers.
And one of the key elements of the makeover exercise is the return of telly queen Ekta Kapoor to Star Plus after a gap of two years. Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms is coming back to the channel with a new show called Tere Liye.
The channel will also have two new shows, Chaand Chhupa Baadal Mein and Master Chef to be hosted by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. “It is a big experiment as we will have a cookery show in the prime-time slot,” says Shankar.
The GEC space is important for all channels as according to TV audience monitoring agency TAM, more than 50 per cent of the viewership share in Hindi speaking market is dominated by Hindi GECs and movies combined. But Shankar says Star’s dependence on Star Plus for its revenues and profits have reduced substantially due to the newly-launched regional channels and last year’s acquisition of Asianet, which operates entertainment channels in four south Indian statesCompeting channel Zee TV had also done a channel makeover in 2005. Akash Chawla, marketing head of Zee TV, says "The change in logo and the timing of a campaign like this is a reflection of the times. In our case, we changed the logo in 2005 and the re-packaging of the channel was done a couple of years later”.
The makeover comes at a time when Star Plus has emerged as the leader among GECs, after 22 weeks. Viacom 18’s Colors had bagged the slot on the GRP (gross rating points) chart.
GRPs are an aggregate of TRPs (TV rating points) which are a measure of the percentage of viewers watching a particular programme at a given time. GRPs of a channel usually translate into its advertising revenue, and are therefore of utmost value.
Star India, a fully-owned subsidiary of News Corporation, broadcasts 32 channels in eight languages to more than 168 million people every week across India and more than 65 countries across the globe.
