XM Launches New Marketing Campaign
Monday, October 9, 2006 at 10:35 AM
Tags: 2, XM
XM Satellite Radio has launched a new marketing and branding campaign under the direction of their new creative agency Lowe New York. The new campaign will be integrated across multiple platforms including television, print, interactive, direct marketing, retail and automotive channels.
Two TV commercial spots will debut this evening (UPDATE: the commercials are set to show on CSI Miami, Studio 60 and The Bachelor tonight. Expect to see more high-profile showings in the upcoming weeks.) - "Switch" and "Hair" - both of which are viewable here.
- "Switch," is set to music from Regina Spektor's single "Better." I like this approach because it's a song that many people wouldn't have heard, but will appeal to a good amount of them. This drives home the thought of "discovery" at a deeper level.
- "Hair" uses the "waves" from XM's logo and features music from Johnny Cash, The Circle Jerks, Beethoven, Flock of Seagulls, Snoop Dogg and Ruggiero Leoncavallo. It mixes humor with the concept of "variety" which is important in furthering the overall "discovery" goal.
Just as important, in my opinion, is the return of the "Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM" slogan that is shown at the end (though there's no voiceover). It's a killer tagline that XM needs to stick with. I think the spots are a step in the right direction because they highlight the underlying feature of the product: music. That's key. I'm not so sure the "On" concept will catch on (it's a bit metaphysical) but overall it's a refreshing change and it looks like Lowe has potential.
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Comments
Very nice. I agree that the return of "Beyond..." is important. The commercials are simple and do not overwhelm the viewer with too much info. I think they are designed to pique the viewers' curiosity.
Let the 4thQ games begin!
Posted by: iband | October 9, 2006 11:22 AM
those commercials are horrible. the only peoples attention they will get are those tripping on acid!
xm's most recent commercial was there best yet. the 1 that talked about there sports, music, talk, comedy, then showed the sportcaster going onto a vehicles dash to show how easy it is to install.
Posted by: Philmore | October 9, 2006 12:15 PM
I like the "gold tooth" for hip hop. Should have been a whole mouthful of gold teeth though :-)
Posted by: Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf ? | October 9, 2006 12:21 PM
Switch is awesome.
Westfall
Posted by: Westfall ? | October 9, 2006 12:58 PM
The next thing they need to do is redesign their website. Something that's a little more organic would be nice.
Posted by: Brian ? | October 9, 2006 2:13 PM
Next thing they should do is redesign their website with a more organic look.
(If I double-posted, toss this one.)
Posted by: Brian ? | October 9, 2006 2:15 PM
""Beyond AM. Beyond FM"
well not exactly, we share a show with FM and its sensored just like FM. so how beyond are you really. Few CC channels still around as well? hmmm
Posted by: PNess ? | October 9, 2006 2:47 PM
we share a show with FM and its sensored just like FM
1) The XM feed of the CBS portion isn't censored.
2) Sirius fanboys have -zero- room to talk about censorship now.
Posted by: tresser ? | October 9, 2006 3:19 PM
"Sirius fanboys have -zero- room to talk about censorship now."
cause of 1 commercial. geeze, you could have picked something a bit more substancial like both XM/Siri sensoring songs on some channels that stream through sprint, aol and other dual branded services. yes they both do it to appease "partners"...so please don't be so dumb nub
Posted by: PNess | October 9, 2006 4:27 PM
PNess,
You make a good point, but More importantly, your mother is a jackel.
Westfall
Posted by: Westfall ? | October 9, 2006 4:41 PM
"Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM"
i always liked that tagline.
Let the 4th Q games begin?
Howard + Christmas = Another SIRIUS retail quarter win
Posted by: DodgerBlues ? | October 9, 2006 10:10 PM
PNess you just got owned
Dodger.....Howard's time was last year which failed to perform as they had hoped. All of his old listeners which didn't go over to Sirius have now found other shows to listen to and since Howard cannot talk to his old listeners it will be hard to bring them over now that he's gone.
Posted by: ahigee ? | October 9, 2006 11:23 PM
It's a nice campaign for sure, but it doesn't really explain what XM is. I can see the viewer at home thinking, XM what?
But the commercials are nothing like I've ever seen before so perhaps that will tempt people to do some research.
Posted by: Tyler | October 9, 2006 11:57 PM
Back on topic....the "hair" ad appeared during NBC's Studio 60 last night. Very nice. The first half grabs the viewer and the second half explains. I think that is the trick -- grab the viewer so he will watch more, then tell him what it's about. My wife had not seen the ad and thought it was very good. Then again, she chose me as her husband, so there goes her credibility.
Posted by: iband | October 10, 2006 7:43 AM
lol pwned real hard...?
Yes my mother is a jackel, you try living with her for 20 years..now she wants to move in with me and my wife...NO FUCKING WAY.
As for howard he has paid for his show, more gains are just profit.
guess we will have another 3rd Q discussion in the 4th Q...67% vs 33%...who was pwned worse then PNess..
Posted by: PNess ? | October 10, 2006 8:29 AM
OT, but I'm not sure Howard has paid for himself just yet. That's a bit of an exaggeration. Between the $500 million and the $200 million in stock, I'm not sure Sirius has brought in $700 million of revenue to cover Howard.
Posted by: iband | October 10, 2006 9:54 AM
Sirius didn't censor the Sinus Buster folks. SiCap decided on their own volition to adjust the commercial. They even stated their reasoning behind it in their PR.
--D
Posted by: Droo ? | October 10, 2006 10:27 AM
PNess, what are you 12? "nub", "pwned", a name like Penis?
That being said, he makes a valid point about Stern. Stern can hype like nobody else can. Maybe ahigee will wake up and realize this.
Stern and Karmazin can market far better than the no-names working for XM.
I will give XM credit for trying. At least they're finally doing something to market the product.
Posted by: Anonymous Coward | October 10, 2006 10:52 AM
XM_On
I thought it sounded familiar:
http://tinyurl.com/qjc33
Posted by: Rich ? | October 10, 2006 3:15 PM
"Howard + Christmas = Another SIRIUS retail quarter win
"
......
Howard + Christmas =Naked elves????
Posted by: Craskill ? | October 10, 2006 4:46 PM
Just saw the commercial on ABC and i'm glad to see that XM made the commercials in High Definition. Most companies won't shell out the money to support the widescreen HD format.
Sure howard and mel can whore themselves out, but they are limited in what they can do. There's no doubt that Sirius won't sell units this holiday season, but we have yet to see their efforts to get their. So far XM has sponsored 2 major shows in the 2 days(not counting regular ad runs) with hardware still to be annouced(we've got one so far). XM will also be all over the World series and playoffs, plus Oprah.
The thing with Sirius CURRENTLY is that they aren't in the mainstream, they have no ads in NFL/NBA/NHL stadiums and I can't remember the last commercial I have seen during the games(prime time to get people). They could increase the sub addition difference from 200,000(3Q06) if they went after these "prime times" aggressively instead of relying on Howard since that's really all their doing right now(and yes it is working for them because they are getting ads but there is SOOOO much more potential)
Posted by: ahigee ? | October 10, 2006 9:52 PM