Executive Producer - Advertising & Creative
"Oprah & Friends" was a highly visible content partnership between Oprah Winfrey and XM Satellite Radio. It featured an exclusive talk channel on the service and garnered the company substantial exposure due to Oprah's high profile and influence. The campaigns for this partnership were long reaching and aggressive across all forms of media, especially in the digital realm - A space XM had not previously ventured deep into. They would prove to be bellwether events in XM's relationship with both DirecTV and retail giant Target.
The creative had to be accommodating and inclusive to the large number of talent on the channel. XM had success with single talent lockups and key art in previous campaigns, but the sheer number of people proved a challenge. When promoting the brand it was decided the "friends" would all be front and center, while anything facing trialers or other prospects would feature Oprah alone in the hero spot.
Already a strategic partner, DirecTV seemed (on paper) to be an unusual platform to market on. A succesful conversion rate and subsequent succesful marketing campaigns on the platform would prove just how useful 'Outside-the-box' marketing would be for XM. The company provided it's service free to DirecTV subscribers through their existing program guide with the hope that prospects would enjoy the content so much that they would convert to a paid car subscription. Oprah proved a great conduit for this, as research found many of her existing viewers were most likely at home for long stretches and would more easily sample the content there.
A promo hosted by channel contributor Gayle King was created to engage and excite potential listeners. This type of direct involvment from partners would prove crucial for subsequent campaigns. Having direct-to-camera testimonials would be a hallmark of XM talent deals.
The "Oprah & Friends" campaign would include highly visible, nation-wide integration into Target stores via their in-store video broadcast network, a first for XM. In-store and over-head advertising was nothing new to XM, but the inclusion of video and it's prominent placement would go on to define the company's retail marketing efforts.
The average Oprah viewer proved to be a little different than other key prospects in that they were less likely to spend large amounts of time in the car and were prone to be online longer than the average person. This provided the company with an opportunity to delve into the world of rich media like it had never done before with a host of interactive and integrated ads promoting "XM Radio Online", it's streaming service aimed at this key demo. The rich media allowed for a more engaging and targeted experience.
The Oprah campaigns provided a fertile proving ground for what would become an essential part of XM marketing: The Landing Page. These pages would allow for highly engaging content and special offers that could be sourced direct to consumer without having to navigate the home page.
