Something's wrong at XM and I just don't get it. Kicking off the first game on Saturday night at Detroit’s Comerica Park, every fan got an XM-branded rally towel and an offer for a free XM radio. Anyone else confused? I know, me too, this is actually a good marketing idea.
XM handed out the towels, and the radio offers, to fans as they entered the stadium. The offer was a special card with a World Series pin attached. The cardholder gets a Delphi RoadyXT radio for free, provided they pay the first three months’ subscription in advance. They could either redeem the cards at the ballpark and take the radios home with them right away, or they could order the radio online after the game.
(The line begins as fans come to get their free Roady XTs.)
XM also had signs throughout Comerica stadium. The new XM TV ads ran on the Jumbotron, and fans heard "XM music breaks" between innings. One of the first XM music breaks was "Old Time Rock and Roll," by Detroit native Bob Seger, who reportedly was spotted in the stands behind home plate bobbing his head.
And get this, there's supposed to be plenty of XM signs and branding at St. Louis’ Busch stadium as well. Could this new marketing team really be doing things right?
I think XM's hit on the marketing sweet spot: expose yourself almost to the point of whoring.
Don't give them too much credit just yet --- last year they did the same thing --- but had the promo for the free Roady XT planned for Game 1 and for some reason GAME 5 - remember what happened last year, that's right, a 4 game sweep and thousands of free Roady XT cards and pins translated into money wasted.
I also believe the take rates on this promo last year was very small.
I'm so impressed with XM's dramatic changes to it's marketing approach. So much so that I've finally realized how much their approach STANK in the past. Good to see this happening - looks like they've finally gotten involved with the right people.
theres no one on line for a free radio. LMFAO!!!
This is what XM needed... a new ad agency. This could turn around XM's bad Quarters lately.
Hey Brian, isn't that the point of marketing. Basically whoring your product so that people will become interested in, buy it and thus keeping the company alive.
I mean, i know that we all like speculate what the Satradio industry is and isn't but straight up, its hurting and XM needed to do some thing quick to turn this boat around and quick.
Besides this isn't whoring. XM is the official Satradio company of baseball so whats the problem. It would be whoring if XM would were at NBA or NFL games, that would be basically pointless.
I mean, any of us could have thought this up. Lets go to the World Series, give away free radio, sign people up for our service and promote the hell out of our company. I could have given that idea to XM for a dime bag, ya know!
Predictable Stern fans bashing anything XM does because its not Sirius, "LMFAO!!"
whoring is not the problem. telling people the veriety of programs you have on the service is the problem. we get the fact that xm has baseball but what else in terms of sports do they have.sa big of sirius fan as i am , i do like xm on aol. i dont like how they advertise.
What I don’t understand about this whole XM vs. Sirius bashing thing. Both companies have their strong points and low points and if you combined the two there would be no way another company if any one would want to come into the marketplace could compete with the combination of both. Neither company is bullet-proof and if you compare where these two companies are in compared to say where Apple computer was five years after it was founded a lot of people were waiting for years for Apple to go away but today million of people have Ipod and more and more people are buying Imacs. But for countless years, in countless magazine articles authors wrote off Apple day and night, but nobody thinks of that today.
Is Stern the end all, be all in sat radio? I don’t know, while he has million of listeners I personally have not listened to one minute of what ever he was to say, just doesn’t appeal to me. I very much enjoy Bob Edwards and listen to him at least a couple of times a week but I don’t see XM spending millions of dollars touting him on XM 133. I enjoy speaking of the business of sat radio because there are a lot of unknowns and the industry is one that we have not seen since radio was invented, but in a totally different ways considering that it is one/two companies providing nationwide coverage. It’s very interesting.
Hey Philmore.... Can you count?
There are at least 15 people with a least thier face visible in the photo in line for a radio.
Before you say that's not a lot, make sure that you notice that a photo is just a moment in time.Say the group of people "renewed" every ten minutes. That's 15 new people every 10 minutes, 30 every 20, 45 every 1/2 hr., 90 every hr. 180 for 2 hrs, and 270 for 3hrs. Plus the "15" number would increase between innings. So.... we're looking at a considerable number. If you take that number and multiply it by every game in the series. Just with that constant nuber of 15....that's a potential of 1890 subs just from the free radios. Plus the subs they get from advertising at the ball parks and word of mouth.
So.... counting and math can be helpful.
i think phil was just a little thrown off that those are actual people signing up for the radios, not just unsold cars in lots.
XM had the same presence at the last 2 All Star games and last years World Series. This is part of their aggreement with MLB.
As best I can tell, the big difference between this year's World Series/XM promotion and other MLB events is the fact that you can pick up your radio and pay your XM subscription at the stadium, and take the radio home with you. Other promotions required you to order the radio online when you got home. An improvement, I think.
To all Sirius Fans:
Let's see how "creative" Sirius will be during the NBA Finals and SuperBowl. The best they are coming up with right now if sponsoring the scoreboard during Notre Dame games on NBC.
wow.
Saw a Sirius ad on Adult Swim last night, SO THERE
xm fans get a thicker skin.
what was last quarter's sub count? i wonder if xm will set up stands at the masters. Or the stanley cup that gets worse ratings than a pre-season football game.
craskill, "at least 15 people"? i see 8 people looking at the girl bending over in the lower right corner of the pic, and 1 guy actually buying a radio. the old guy with the blue jacket and yellow sleeves looks like hes actually thinking about hopping the table to smack that ass!
with a stadium filled with thousands of fans, its pathetic that less than 10 people are on line for a FREE RADIO!!!!!
FaFaFluFly:
Do you know what the ratings for the world series is?..... That's what this article is about-baseball. Not golf or hockey, Basball.
And... how is the NHL having terrible ratings XM's fault?
well crackskull, i was responding to xmdude. the world series got a record low game 1 rating of 8.0 and a 11.8 for game 2, compared to a regular season football game 2 days ago on fucking cable that got a 12.8.
Never said it was xm's fault that hockey sucks on tv. ask xmdude what a notre dame game has to do with baseball.
Sirius will be doing the SAME EXACT thing at Nascar events next year.
Really sure the QUALITY activations will be coming from that.
Stern and Nascar on the same service. Wow, your perfect place for things that are 10 years past thier prime. When is Ace of Base getting thier own channel?