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Getting Sirius About Audience Segmentation: How Sirius XM Broke into Radio and Dominated the Air

Program Recap

AMAKC Brings SiriusXM to Kansas City

The American Marketing Association – Kansas City Chapter hosted two speakers from SiriusXM and local celebrity John Holt at their spring seminar on May 21, 2019. The event, titled Getting Sirius About Audience Segmentation: How SiriusXM Broke into Radio and Dominated the Air, was held in Reigner Auditorium at the KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park. The location provided an intimate conversational setting between the audience and SiriusXM presenters. John Holt from Fox4 Newmoderated the event and following a brief introduction turned things over to the keynote speakers.

Marc Richards, vice president, discussed SiriusXM’s subscription business model and contrasted it with most media businesses that make money from advertising. Before attending the seminar, audience members probably didn’t see the parallels between SiriusXM and other media subscriptions like HBO and Netflix. Marc shared the successes of partnerships within the auto industry which enabled the
installation of SiriusXM into dashboards of new cars. Did you know 80% of new vehicles have SiriusXM hardware installed?

Barbara Gmerek, sales director, then shared marketing strategies and tactics to keep consumersengaged. With a churn rate of less than 2%, most SiriusXM consumers come from purchased subscriptions following the free three month trial that comes with the purchase of a new vehicle. Key to consumer satisfaction is the level of curated channels that SiriusXM provides. With the average consumer spending 100 hours a year commuting to work, the importance of providing a range of content is evident. SiriusXM offers more hundreds of channels featuring every genre of music, talk show, podcasts, and even an audio book channel. Offering range of content for each consumer segment is key to SiriusXM’s success. There was considerable discussion about the acquisition of Pandora, completed by SiriusXM late last year.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is the world’s largest audio entertainment company, and the premier programmer and platform for subscription- and advertising-supported audio products. With the recent addition of Pandora Media, the largest streaming music provider in the U.S., SiriusXM reaches more than 100 million people with its audio products and services.

The Annual Seminar is the premiere event in the AMAKC programming calendar, bringing marketing insight from some of the most successful companies in the world. In addition to SiriusXM presenters, executive level speakers from brands like IKEA, Nike, Disney, Google, Southwest Airlines, and others have helped Kansas City marketers understand how to big brands run their integrated marketing
communications campaigns.

AMAKC would like to say a special thank you to this year’s sponsors: Hallmark, Spectrum Reach, Emfluence, ProPrint Digital, Plexpod, RSM Marketing and The Fiddly Fig.

About the Program

Slicing and Dicing your Audience

The process of audience segmentation is not about just stats. It’s about finding your ideal customers and choosing the right way to interact with them. In an over-communicated world, finding a way to cut through the clutter is more difficult than ever. Understanding your audience segments – and how to make them work for your upcoming campaigns – is the difference between success and failure. Sirius XM uses their programming to slice and dice an audience into segments for advertisers from Amazon to Xbox, and everyone in between.

Sirius XM is the world’s largest audio entertainment company, and the premier programmer and platform for subscription- and advertising-supported audio products. With the recent addition of Pandora Media, the largest streaming music provider in the U.S., SiriusXM reaches more than 100 million people with its audio products and services.

In this seminar, you’ll hear how Sirius XM understands audience segments – and how to make them work for your upcoming campaigns in any media channel.

Event Details

Date: May 21, 2019
Time: 8:00am to 11:30am

Registration: 8:00am – 9:00am
Program: 9 :00am– 11:30 am

Arrive early for breakfast and networking.

KU Edwards Campus
Regnier Hall Auditorium
 12600 Quivira Rd.
Overland Park, KS 66213
[MAP]

About the Seminar

The Annual Seminar is the premiere event in the AMAKC programming calendar, bringing marketing insight from some of the most successful companies in the world. Executive level speakers from brands like IKEA, Nike, Disney, Google, Southwest Airlines, and others have helped Kansas City marketers understand how to big brands run their integrated marketing communications campaigns.

This event is open to members and non members of AMA. For those purchasing tickets with the membership discount, membership will be checked at the door. 

Limited Student Scholarships are available. Click here if you’re interested.

About the Speakers

Marc Richards, Vice President
Sirius XM

As the former Publisher of well-known consumer magazines such as In Touch, Men’s Fitness and First for Women, Marc spent years witnessing first-hand the massive consumer behavioral shift from single copy to subscription purchase. Having seen the tremendous power of the subscription model across mediums, as demonstrated by the game-changing launches and executions of HBO (1974) and Netflix (1997), he turned his attention to the most recent media industry success-story, SiriusXM, and its +32% three year growth trajectory, prior to his arrival in 2014.  Since then, he’s been focused on both better understanding the unique content value required to earn long-term, paid consumer support and how to best leverage that passion and commitment for the advertising community.

 

Barbara Gmerek, Sales Director
Sirius XM

Barbara Gmerek is a Sales Director in Chicago for SiriusXM where she develops and executes audio marketing strategies and consistently leads the region in sales. Formerly a Vice President at Interep Radio, she worked with large radio station groups such as ABC, Entercom and Emmis as well as many privately held stations.

With over 22 years of advertising experience, Barbara has seen and directed companies and clients through massive changes in the audio landscape. During her career, Barbara has witnessed the emergence of satellite radio and has been a proud part of the evolution of a company that has grown to a $5.8 billion audio entertainment powerhouse.

Barbara enjoys spending time with her husband and 8 year old daughter.

 

About the Brand

Sirius XM

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is the world’s largest audio entertainment company, and the premier programmer and platform for subscription- and advertising-supported audio products. With the recent addition of Pandora Media, the largest streaming music provider in the U.S., SiriusXM reaches more than 100 million people with its audio products and services.

Our Moderator

John Holt, Co-Anchor
Fox 4 News

John Holt joined FOX 4 News in 1994. He co-anchors “FOX 4 News at 5 p.m.” and “FOX 4 News at 9 p.m.” John also serves as an investigative and special projects reporter for FOX 4 News. John has won numerous awards including Regional Emmy’s for anchoring, news writing, investigative reporting, general assignment reporting, and feature reporting. Media Mix, a media professionals group in Kansas City, named John its TV Personality of the Year in 2000, 2006, and 2008. In 2015 The Heart of America Boy Scout Council named John a Ewing M. Kauffman Distinguished Eagle Scout.

He graduated from the University of Kansas Schools of Journalism and Law, and previously worked at WIBW-TV in Topeka and KSNW-TV in Wichita.

Meet Our Sponsor

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It’s time to stop doing business as usual and start doing business as exceptional.

Event Registration

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