Kicking off its national advertising campaign, XM Satellite Radio will debut its 60-second spot today on more than 19,000 screens in 3,000 theaters across the country, constituting the bulk of movie screens in the nation.
XM’s national ad campaign, dubbed “Radio to the Power of X,” is a multimedia effort anchored by a television campaign developed by TBWA/Chiat/Day, and features artists such as BB King, David Bowie, and Snoop Dogg. The ad campaign effort will also include radio, magazines, newspapers, direct mail, outdoor, and online, and is intended to generate momentum for XM’s commercial service launch slated for Sept. 12.
Commenting on the decision to launch its ad campaign on the big screen, XM president and CEO Hugh Panero said, “What better place to introduce America to XM than in movie theaters, where consumers are used to seeing and hearing great entertainment? We’re coming to just about everybody’s local theater to let them know that a new generation of radio-Radio to the Power of X-is coming to their local retailer in a few weeks.”
Overall, the ad campaign attempts to define XM’s brand as the ultimate radio experience. In the initial ad, musicians, musical instruments, a racing car, and other objects rain down across the country from an XM satellite. The company has also produced seven 30-second, genre-specific spots intended to give consumers a flavor of some of the programming that will be available. Some $45 million of the company’s proposed $100 million advertising campaign will be concentrated in the fourth quarter of this year.
XM says it will offer 100 channels of digital-quality sound, including 71 music channels (more than 30 of them commercial-free) and 29 news, sports, and talk channels, for a monthly subscription fee of $9.99. XM Intends to launch commercial service Sept. 12, initially in San Diego and Dallas/Fort Worth, throughout the Southwest by mid-October, and then nationally in early November.
