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This
week the on-air promo (OAP) profile series features the newly launched
show on Star Plus, Karma-Koi aa rahaa hai waqt badalney.
The weekly show was launched on Friday 27 August and is placed in
the 10 pm slot. The first-ever thriller show from the Balaji stable
Karma will run 26 episodes.
 The
Star's in-house on-air promo team created the Karma OAP.
The brief given to the team was to "present a modern-day saviour,
who is a normal human being but is blessed with superpowers. He
is the messiah in the fight of good versus evil."
"Kids, teen and the youth were identified as the core target
group of the OAP," offers a senior Star Plus executive.
The second episode of Karma, telecast on 3 September, has
managed to break into the top 100 programmes club (ranked 81) as
per the latest TAM ratings (29 August to 4 September C&S 4+
YRS).
The channel unfolded the complete picture of Karma using
a four-stage process. The campaign was kicked off with a teaser
promo which said "when evil rules the world, God does not leave
a vacuum; he sends a saviour...Saviour is coming." The curiosity
was created and next came, again, a teaser promo, which showed silhouettes
of the hero. The hero was presented, but the silhouettes made sure
that the curiosity remained.
Then in the third stage, the mystery is solved as the hero emerges
from the shadows. The promo reveals that saviour is actually a regular
guy, but armed with superpowers. Then the final promo has the hero
- the saviour - in full glory with the title track in the background.
"Karma has supernatural elements, but it's not a thriller.
So the OAPs were created keeping in mind the basic plot and the
creative worked out as per plan," says the official.
The channel started promoting the show on air five weeks prior
to the launch and then had a sustained post-launch campaign as well.
The Karma OAPs are placed in the slots that address the core
TG of the show. According to the Star official, the duration of
an OAP campaign would generally vary from three to eight weeks,
depending on the show. Talking about promoting the show across the
network he says, it's important to utilise strength of the network
to maximise awareness and impact of on-air promotion.
 While
creating the off-air campaign, the creative team made sure that
it complimented the OAP. The off-air campaign conducted for Karma
mainly depended on the print medium, targeting the comics-crazy
kids. Karma was placed in a Chacha Choudhary story in the September
issue, where Karma helps Chacha Choudhary battle his arch rival
Markesh - showcasing some of his superpowers.
"We have also used the Diamond comics medium to generate tune-ins
by placing a advert using the same message as the on-air promos
- he has come to change the times. The same advert also uses the
STAR SMS property 7827 wherein the kids can defeat evil Markesh
(just like Karma) by playing a seven level SMS quiz game - the entire
idea of the off-air campaign is thus to create intrigue around Karma's
superpowers by complementing the on-air promos," says the official.
"On-air promotion is crucial for any show. Most of the research
does suggest that the primary recall for most television shows is
on-air. Promos are the first source of information about any upcoming
content. It's about building the audiences' appetite for a new property
and creating an excitement among the potential audience. Unless
both the strategy and creative are fine-tuned to address this potential
audience, the entire effort, however, substantial would be a waste,"
sums up the official.
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