Sirius XM Driving New Revenue Through Sharing
Sirius XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) is making an interesting marketing move these days. Investors have oft been critical of Sirius XM’s marketing efforts when it comes to getting new people on board, but the company tends to do well in getting information out to existing subscribers.
This latest effort, called “Share The Love” is a direct pitch to existing subscribers, but asks that those existing subscribers share Sirius XM with someone else. The premise is surprisingly simple, and given the price point it may be just the type of promotion Sirius XM needs to boost revenues.
What Sirius XM is doing is asking people to add Internet streaming to their account for $2.99 per month. They then ask you to share the access with someone like a child or college student so that they can enjoy the benefits of Sirius XM. Whether or not the promotion gains traction will be interesting to watch.
Even if the company only gets 500,000 of the subscriber base to jump at the promotion, it represents $4.5 million in revenue per quarter, and could be a way for the company to stop the continued drop in ARPU. Sure the numbers are not huge, but every little bit helps.
The company is notifying existing subscribers of the promotion via email.
Position – Long Sirius XM Radio
I guess they will give you a second login? Nothing about this appears new or different. If they don’t give you a second login it is pointless. It kills your stream if you try to login two at a time.
How is this a promotion? It’s basically them asking you to add the internet streaming at regular price and give someone else your login.
I’ll give a great example. I work as a marketing consultant out of my home so I don’t commute to an office and am rarely in the car for long periods of time. Therefore I don’t need SIRI in my car however I do like the breadth of content SIRI provides and enjoy listening via the app on my iPhone.
Since my father is an existing subscriber and has unit in his car, I simply called and added the app to the account and was quoted $43 for two years! What a great deal for me! I piggybacked off my fathers existing account to get the promotional rate and now I listen to SIRI at home while I work during the day. The login for the iPhone app and login for online use is the same.
BTW, not sure why the smartphone app has been given poor ratings. I’ve been using it for about 4 months and have no problems. It’s great!
Others would be smart to find someone they know with an existing subscription to gain use to the smarphone app for such a small price.