It's too late to be one of the first 19 million subscribers to Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI), unless you're already there. The satellite radio provider topped that mark last year. You're also fashionably tardy if you want to be one of the first million people to follow either Ashton Kutcher or CNN on Twitter. Those milestones came and went over the weekend.
However, if you hurry, there is still time to become one of the first thousand subscribers to Sirius on Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) YouTube. You don't need to open up your pocketbook. It's perfectly free.
Come to think of it, you probably don't even have to rush. The official Sirius channel on YouTube has been populated with videos for a year, yet that didn't get in the way of my becoming Subscriber No. 134 this week.
It's not that Sirius XM is skimping on content. There are 71 videos -- and counting -- offering celebrity on-air interviews with the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Bill Clinton, and even Eminem making a prank phone call to LL Cool J. These are the ingredients that typically result in blowout YouTube success, yet as of this morning only two of the clips have attracted more than 2,000 views.
Shouldn't it be a lot easier for Sirius XM to be a YouTube star? After all, it has the broadcasting pedigree and the celebrity-studded Rolodex.
Playing chicken
Companies are warming up to Web 2.0 these days. Unless you've avoided your television this past week, you have probably seen plenty of ads from KFC, promoting its new grilled chicken. The Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) chain famous for its fried poultry buckets is hoping to make a dent in the healthier grilled-chicken market.
It's not simply settling for a televised media blitz. In cyberspace, KFC is promoting its Unthinkfc.com site, where it is trying to hit all of the viral-campaign hot buttons:
- It links to its Facebook and Twitter pages.
- The site is encouraging visitors to upload YouTube videos of fans doing their chicken dances.
- Casual gamers can play an online music game, similar to Konami's (NYSE: KNM) Dance Dance Revolution.
- A free app for iPhone and iPod touch is "coming soon" to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) App Store.
How can Mel Karmazin let Colonel Sanders school it in cyberspace? Sirius XM is the entertainment company!
No-brainer attack plan for satellite radio
Sirius XM is on a roll these days. Its stock is up nearly tenfold since bottoming out in February. It received a slight credit-rating upgrade last week. There is no reason why it shouldn't be firing on all cylinders, especially virally.
Since it can't do much to lift the fortunes of struggling auto partners like Ford (NYSE: F) or avoid the inevitable head-on collision between General Motors (NYSE: GM) and bankruptcy reorganization, it has to make its own luck.
Working the sticky Web 2.0 outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as promotional tools is a no-brainer approach. If successful, it would also lower subscriber acquisition rates.
Oh, and it shouldn't be just a standalone Sirius or XM initiative. Now that the company has taken its lumps for consolidating a lot of its music channels so that the two services are practically the same on the commercial-free music front, work those individual genre brands. Each channel should have its own social network, playlist-propelling tweets, and self-promoting YouTube channels.
If KFC can do it for a single menu item, why can't Sirius XM do it for Alt Nation or Outlaw Country? What are you, Karmazin? Chicken?
Some other Sirius stories:
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