Extensive Marketing Strategy of Sun Tv Network – With Detailed Overview

Updated on: May 12, 2022
Marketing Strategy of Sun Tv Network - Featured Image

  Hey there!

My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

Practical assignments, case studies & simulations from Harvard Business Review helped the students from this course present this analysis.

Building on this practical approach, we are now introducing a new dimension for our online digital marketing course learners - the Campus Immersion Experience.

If you find this case study helpful, consider leaving a comment below.

In our last post, we learned about the marketing strategy of Welspun India, a leading textile company. In this blog, we will discuss the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network, an Indian media organization. 

The objective is to learn and gain insights into Sun Tv Network and how it became Tamil Nadu’s leading Tv network. The main objective of the company is, through a structured talent assessment, you can attract, engage, and promote talents, as well as maintain the protracted endurance of strong senior management and stay ahead of the competition. 

Marketing has become an important aspect of an industry’s DNA which may make or break its sustainability. As users all around the entire globe relocate to the online world, marketing has got on board. Since you’re interested in current digital marketing, IIDE’s Free MasterClass on Digital Marketing 101, hosted by our CEO and Founder, Karan Shah, is a must.

This blog goes over the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network. Before we begin with the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network, first let us start by learning more about the company’s business, intended audience, & online footprint before we plunge in.

Digital Marketing Academic Challenge 2024 - DMAC

Sun Tv Network – Company’s Overview

Marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - suntv_network

Sun Tv Network is an Indian TV and radio network based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It is one of Tamil Nadu’s leading Tv networks and is managed by the Sun Group. Kalanithi Maran started the business on April 14, 1992, and now it holds a range of television channels and radio stations in many language families.

In May 2000, they started Sun News, a news and current affairs service, following the debut of Sun TV. In October 2002, again they launched KTV, a 24-hour Tamil cinema channel with a strong concentration on films and film-related programming. In September of 2004, they established Sun Music, the first 24-hour Tamil music channel. This channel broadcasts both film and non-film-related programming. Sun-News, KTV and Sun Music were all turned to paid channels later on.

SUN Group runs a successful 33 television network (25 SD + 8 HD) in Indian languages, comprising Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, and Bengali. The corporation owns 59.44% of its compensated shareholding as of March 31, 2018. Sun Tv Network released Sun NXT, a novel online content gateway in June 2017 that enables customers to access their favourite television in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada on their desired technologies. During the 2017-18 academic year, the company opened Surya Comedy, a 24-hour Malayalam comedy show, and Sun NXT, a digital entertainment network.

Quick Stats on Sun Tv Network
CEO K. Vijaykumar
CMO N/A
Area Served Worldwide
Industry Mass Media
Market Share/ Revenue 3,388.03 crores INR (US$480 million, 2020–2021)
Vision The primary aim of this new firm is to spread Sun Tv stations among all traditional networks in India and worldwide.
Tagline Har Ghar Mein Sun Ton Tona Ton.

 

Marketing Strategy of Sun Tv Network

Sun TV’s inter development concept is built on: Making advantage of greater viewer ratings in a more suitable environment. Switching free-to-air channels to subscription channels. Children’s shows and programs have now been brought into play.


Segmentation, Positioning & Targeting

Segmentation – Different age groups of people are rambling in the market to share their views regarding a particular brand. Sun Tv Network has focused on both low and high-end consumers, this gets mirrored in their products and services too. Rural consumers also have a major part of Sun Tv’s targeted group.

Targeting – Sun Tv Network is a south Indian network which runs a successful 33 Television networks (25 SD + 8 HD) in Indian languages, comprising Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, and Bengali. The most favoured target market is South India for the Sun Tv Network. 

Positioning – It is currently streaming Tamil Film Music from Glory Days as a Historic network. As the Sun Tv Network has grown mainly organically in entire India still it is shining brightly in South India. 


Marketing Campaign Strategy

Sun TV deployed a media mix that included social networking sites, social discovery vehicles, influencers, mobile networks, and a wide array of display inventory across publishers, dividing the campaign into a week-long high-intensity launch exercise followed by a 45-day sustaining period.

Using social media, display networks, publishers, and mobile apps, the campaign reached nearly 11.7 million Tamils across the region in 50 days. Sun TV observed a huge increase in fan armies, Facebook groups, and press pieces sharing campaign-related information, thanks to improved interaction during primetime and a 44 per cent higher watch rate using competition sync.

Through contests and interactive surveys, Facebook and Instagram witnessed over 4.85 million engagements in the first week of the campaign. During the duration of the campaign, the official Facebook page had a 300 percent increase in followers, with around 22 million views. Sun TV had a 20% boost in brand mentions during prime time week over week. 


Social Media Marketing

Sun Tv Network can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. With a bunch of followers. Given below is the table showing the number of followers on each of their social media handles:

Social Media Platform

No. of followers/ subscribers

Facebook

7,711,554 followers

Instagram

1.9M followers

Twitter

1.8M followers

YouTube

16.8 followers


Sun Tv Network’s social media marketing strategy is outstanding, as we can see from the follower and subscriber counts. They are mostly active on Facebook and Youtube, where they have 7.7 million followers and 16.8 million followers. If you see their Facebook, you can see lots of promotions, education and more related to Sun Tv. 

Instagram page

Marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - Instagram 


Facebook page

MarketinMarketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - Facebookg strategy of Sun Tv Network - Facebook


Twitter page

Marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - Twitter


Youtube page

Marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - Youtube


SEO Strategies

Marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - SEO

As per SEO ranking, it is said that the Number of keywords – below 500 is bad, above 1000 is good, and 10,000+ is amazing. As we can see that Sun Tv Network has 32,554 organic keywords and it’s considered outstanding. That means the digital marketing of the Sun Tv Network is gaining a good number of insights. 

Also, the traffic per month is around 400k+ which is known as exceptional. Hence, the Sun Tv Network is successful in its SEO strategies while it worked hard enough to keep the brand soaring in the Google organic SERP results. If you want to learn more about SEO in-depth, check out our short term SEO course through which you can extensively learn SEO.  


Influencer Marketing

Using mobile sync technology across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, the company targeted fans of competitor broadcasts in advert breaks via Silverpush. Exclusive promos, streaming videos, promotions, and media integration via prominent Tamil YouTube channels dominated the sustainability phase, which aims at enhancing enthusiasm for programming content. They also made viral memes centred on characters in the show and entertaining episodes that they dispersed across different location-based mobile Chat groups.


E-commerce Strategies

The company has begun to profit from its own OTT system Sun NXT, which was earlier intended to deliver normal programming. Presently, online earnings are included in subscriptions. Sun NXT app alone has 20,000 everyday installations, as per the organization, and has been bringing in subscription service earnings of Rs 5 crore without spending much on exclusive programming, generating an income of Rs 60 crore from the network annually.


Mobile App

Marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network - Mobile App

This app provides you with a network in all 4 Southern Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada – to watch live TV, movies, kids’ shows, news, comedy clips, catch-up, Video on Demand (VOD), originals, music, and much more. Watch it on your favourite devices, like mobile, iPad, computers, smart TV, and devices, anywhere at the time as well as from anywhere.

Showcases of the app:

  1. Watching live television
  2. Make up for lost time
  3. App in your preferred regional language
  4. High-Definition Video
  5. Films that are only available to subscribers
  6. Recommendations for the Program
  7. Agnostic to the screening
  8. The creation of several profiles


Content Marketing Strategy

As a consequence, Sun TV came up with a plan centred on a tri method. The firm assessed the targeted group’s media consumption trends across sectors. Popular online platforms, themes, information forms, keywords, patterns, language, as well as other factors, were reviewed. The questionnaire survey was used to gather views on existing staff and to assess the longevity of characters in the show and television celebrities.

In contrast, social networking activity and the influence of play promotions on judgment were observed. Whereas Facebook and Instagram delivered a bigger screen engagement with exclusive promotions, behind-the-scenes visuals, and contests, YouTube drew in-market and association viewers who were watching comparable or competing material.

 

This ends our elaborative marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network.

Digital Marketing Academic Challenge 2024 - DMAC

Conclusion – What’s unique in Sun Tv Network marketing?

Sun Tv Network’s main skill is the ability to control costs, with a % net income in marketing. The business is rising at a 10% rate, whereas the free cash flow is rising at a 9% pace. There is no notable change between Operating Cash Flow and Net Profits, showing a good allocation of capital. 

As we all know, digital marketing has taken a drastic change because of pandemics that affected every business. As per digital marketing statistics, about 60% of the population of the world uses the internet. It rose by 20% in the past two years due to the pandemic with many businesses going online. An established company’s image is everything. The right campaign strategies can make or break a company’s brand image. Through digital marketing, effective campaigns can be designed and the scope of fixing any glitches immediately is there.

With the increasing importance of digital marketing, learning about the growing field is an important step. If you would like to learn more and develop skills, check out Online Digital Marketing Course to learn more. Or else you can attend one of our free online masterclasses held by IIDE’s CEO, Karan Shah which will give you a glimpse into the world of digital marketing.

We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.

If you like such in-depth analysis of companies just like the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network, check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and do share your thoughts on this case study of the marketing strategy of Sun Tv Network in the comments section below.

Share post via

Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts