KukuFM banks on Bhakti app, Maha Kumbh for growth push

Kuku FM has launched its spiritual audio app, Bhakti, at the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, a once-in-12-years religious event that is expected to attract about 40 crore devotees. This year it is being organised at Prayagraj, between January 13 and 26, 2025.

The Bhakti app has more than 2,000 hours of content, including 500+ shows, audiobooks, bhajans (devotional songs), and parables related to spiritual texts and mythological epics such as Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, and Ramayana. The brand will release a digital campaign to promote the app across India. The company told Campaign that the app's beta version, KukuFM informs, has already seen five lakh downloads.

Focusing on Maha Kumbh Mela as an important event, KukuFM plans to leverage this once-in-a-decade opportunity for marketing as well as content generation. Since the festivities are expected to continue till February 13, 2025, the brand will have its feet on the street at Prayagraj for the entire month, Jhoomer Sinha, vice president of Hindi business, KukuFM told Campaign.

During this period, the company will conduct on-ground promotions using branded tents, kiosks, and contests, offering prizes such as tickets for the Char Dham pilgrimage (holy places of four of 12 historic Shiva temples in India).

Jhoomer Sinha, vice president–Hindi business, KukuFM

Being stationed at the venue, the company's content teams will create content across formats, such as vox pop by interviewing devotees about their Kumbh Mela experience, informative pieces about the history of Kumbh Mela, the stories behind various chants and bhajans, and the content capturing the voices of spiritual leaders and celebrities who visit Maha Kumbh Mela this year. The team will integrate the new content with its existing content for cross-leverage and content-base expansion.

KukuFM’s introduction of Bhakti app and its promotions during Maha Kumbh Mela should be viewed in the context of its marketing strategy for the full year. The brand has allocated between 5% and 8% of its advertising and marketing (A&M) budget for 2025 to activities during Maha Kumbh Mela.

For the full year, the company plans to spend INR 150 to 180 crores on marketing. Through these efforts, the brand aims to expand its customer-base, reach, and consumer engagement in 2025.

Nearly 80% of its marketing spends will be dedicated to digital performance marketing, with the balance allocated to brand-building initiatives such as celebrity endorsements and on-ground campaigns. As of now, KukuFM has over 30 lakh paid subscribers. On account of Maha Kumbh Mela alone, the brand expects to see up to four percent rise in its subscriber-base, and it has set a target of 50 lakh paid subscribers by the end of this year.

The audio battlefield

The audio content market that KukuFM operates in is crowded with multiple players including global brands and local, regional language players vying for consumer pie. The Amazon-backed Audible has an extensive audio library as well as the financial muscle to provide consumers with wide-ranging, exclusive, and personalised content. JioSaavn, Gaana, Saregama, and Spotify are known for their strengths in streaming music. Some of these players are also present in areas such as podcasts, regional content—or even devices.

While the platforms like SoundCloud and Audioboom specialise in creator-driven content including podcasts and albums, players like Kahaniya (audio stories in Hindi), Shunboi (audio books in Bengali), and StoryNory (stories for kids) operate in niche areas. Pocket FM, with its specialisation in multiple Indian languages, is another key competitor for KukuFM whose own strength too lies in regional languages.

KukuFM currently has audio content in seven languages including Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu, and plans to add English this year. In addition, there are dozens of small, regional players vying for the consumer’s ears and pockets. While the audio content market is said to be booming, the existence of strong competitors indicates the depth and diversity of this segment posing a serious challenge to the brand.

KukuFM plans to focus on tapping the global audience by expanding its English audio book libraries this year. Last year, the brand signed up content partnerships with leading publishers of English books like Rupa Publications and Harper Collins and globally acclaimed authors such as Jeffrey Archer to boost its content libraries to reach to a global audience. “We want to emerge as a leading India-headquartered audio OTT player targeting the global English-speaking audience within the next few years,” says Sinha.

Leveraging technology

KukuFM has raised $71 million in venture funding including $25 million series C round funding from Nandan Nilekani led Fundamentum Partnership so far. Besides helping the brand undertake aggressive marketing including digital and ground-level activities, the funding has helped it expand its content libraries across different languages and genres. Refraining from disclosing any plans about fresh funding, Sinha informs that the company's focus this year will be on becoming profitable and self-sustained.

One of the areas it focuses on to improve its productivity and efficiency has been use of generative AI. KukuFM uses various generative AI tools to automate tasks including content ideation, script writing, and performance analytics.

“AI integration has helped us accelerate our campaign execution and personalisation,” Sinha says. The company will continue to focus on AI even this year, exploring new ways AI can transform business processes across content creation and marketing, thus, contributing to its profitability objectives, at the same time.

Going forward, subject to the success of content and marketing activities during Maha Kumbh Mela, KukuFM will replicate the model in other parts of the country for various religious or cultural events in the coming months.

In a market dominated by various global and local players, the brand will need to focus on a range of aspects including coming up with audience-centric content strategies, extending brand reach to new markets, and expanding subscriber-base, besides staying focused on financial targets.

Will KukuFM emerge as the top player in India's audio market? While the jury is still out, the year 2025 will prove to be a decisive one in this regard.