Sirius about the Rockets?

I'd Love This Product Even If I Weren't A Stealth Marketer

By Kyle Pafrath
December 14, 2005 | Issue 41•50
I'd Love This Product Even If I Weren't A Stealth Marketer

Like you, I'm bombarded every minute of every day with advertising. And having been misled more than a few times in my life, I'm immediately skeptical of any product I see on the side of a bus. That's why I was so surprised by the new Mountain Dew True Blue.

It truly lives up to the hype: Crisp and tangy, refreshing and energizing, it reminds my jaded taste buds how good a soda can be. Sure, I may be a stealth marketer employed by a national conglomerate to imperceptibly push the product in public, but this beverage is so unbelievably great, I'd subliminally market it to perfect strangers for free!

Honestly, this awesome beverage packs such a punch, you'd practically have to pay me not to pretend to talk about it on my cell phone when I'm in earshot of consumers in the coveted 17-34 demographic.

Even if I weren't required by my employer to pull a six-pack off the shelf at my local grocery store while emitting a quiet but distinct "All right!" under my breath just loud enough for the other customers to hear, I'd do it anyway—just for the pleasure of furtively turning people on to this amazing thirst quencher.

In stealth-marketing parlance, this is what is known as "roach baiting," but I prefer to call it "the least I can do."

Seriously, it's an honor to subtly plug something I actually believe in for once. I'm so in love with this one-of-a-kind soda, I want to shout its product name from the rooftops of a lower-to-middle-class neighborhood! Preferably one with an elementary school nearby, where consumers are still young enough that their brand loyalty is not yet fully established. I know it sounds crazy, maybe even a little scary, but honestly, True Blue is just that good.

Don't tell my bosses, but I enjoy True Blue so much, I sometimes stealth market it well outside PepsiCo's target demographic. Maybe it's wrong of me to sit in on the senior center's weekly square-dance classes while chugging True Blue, but the rush I get from inconspicuously getting the word out about this tremendous new product is nearly impossible to find anywhere else. Come to think of it, the only other time I experience pure exhilaration like that is when I twist open a 20-oz. bottle of True Blue.

Also, I get it from drinking Mountain Dew Code Red and Mountain Dew Pitch Black.

Sure, the task of registering for nearly 30 different newsgroup accounts using fake names and e-mail addresses just to generate the honest word-of-mouth buzz this product deserves may sound like a lot of work to you, one of the few Americans who hasn't been bowled over by the no-holds-barred flavor of True Blue.

Normally, if I were hired to viral market a new beverage I wasn't particularly passionate about—for example, that new Coca-Cola drink, whatever it's called—I would just subliminally insert favorable comments in two dozen or so high-traffic chat rooms and be done with it. Only a very special product could make me devote a week of evenings to surfing literally hundreds of chat rooms, gaining the confidence of unwitting users by establishing a base of common interests before casually mentioning how I recently tried the most hardcore, carbonated pick-me-up the world has ever seen.

But hey, don't let me influence you. Try True Blue for yourself!

 

Can you listen to the Rockets games on the PC? I didn't think that was available with their "PC version". A lot of the stuff on XM and Sirius radios isn't available via their PC feeds... so... is this available?

 

Yes you can!

 

I just got XM and yes you can listen to it online. Don't know or care about Sirius because XM's gonna buy them out within 2-3 years anyway. It will be nice when XM gets the NBA but I can wait.

 

So you think. I've had both, Sirius by far is the best.

 

If everyone thought like you, you'd be correct, but everyone doesn't, so you're not necessarily correct.

 

I think I'll try Mountain Dew True Blue. I not so sure about sirius radio though

 

So is that why nfl,nba and now nascar have exclusive deal with Sirius? What 100m to Stern and Martha Stewart channell. The only thing XM has his baseball. We will see who gets bought out. I've had Sirius from day one and its great. XM is a thing of the past.

 

Unfortuneatly you still have to listen to Jim Foley too.

 

Perhaps you and others are only looking at specific channels you care about, such as sports. I'm talking about the business and Wall St. side of things. XM got a huge head start on Sirius and there is no sign Sirius will ever make a dent in the lead. Whether they turn out to be true or not, strong rumors are strong rumors and business sense is business sense. If/when the market finally reaches the conclusion that there isn't enough room for two satellite channels to be profitable, they will merge. Simple as that. It's all about what investors think.

Since the beginning, XM has been much stronger, probably because of their head start. Sirius will pay $500MM over 5 years to Stern, which is way too much and the deal will likely harm them. Sirius needs the high profile people more than XM. With ~1/3 the subscribers of XM, Sirius basically bought the NFL & NBA accounts because it's the only way they could win. Let's see how it plays out. I'm one of the majority (of people looking at the business model) that says there will be only one satellite player within 2-3 years: XM. Stern better be the game changer Sirius is banking on or investors will lose patience.

I'm not slamming Sirius' content or programming at all. A lot of people say their music channels are better. On sports, they obviously have the lead. But subscriber growth shows they are still losing the war handily to XM.

 

Hasn't Stern denied this?

 

I don't think so. All of the "analysts" keep talking about the $500MM/5yr price Sirius paid and whether Stern will pay for himself.

I like the growth of satellite radio. I'm anti-Clear Channel. Any competition that hurts them is good. If XM and Sirius both become viable I'm all for it. While I don't like anything about Stern, his going to Sirius could mark a watershed moment in radio history.

 

and XBox will blow away Sony
and Direct TV will take over Dish Network

could be more than 2-3 years before you see the frontrunner in this one.

I've had both and Sirius is better.

 

Don't forget the power of NASCAR.

People that say one or the other is better aren't necessarily right. The one that's right for you is the one that's better and that one changes based upon the person. Some people couldn't care less about Howard Stern (like me). Others couldn't care less about MLB. Some people think all the music stations are the same when you compare the two. Others enjoy the dance stations on XM more.

It all depends... which is one reason why I'm thinking about getting a Sirius receiver for the house (I already have XM in my car).

 

Sirius is my crack. I will never go back to regular radio.