SiriusXM made a holiday sweater for metalheads in campaign from Uncommon

Two months of relentlessly upbeat holiday music must drive heavy-metal fans insane. But SiriusXM has their back in a fun, high-octane campaign from Uncommon Creative Studio that involved the creation of a one-of-a-kind “metal sweater”—playing off ugly-sweater holiday tropes. Below is a two-minute spot from Uncommon that’s a centerpiece of the holiday campaign. Directed by Elena Pettiti di Roreto of Anonymous Content, the film chronicles the creation of the metal sweater—in wry yet headbanging style. The campaign arrives at a busy time for the audio entertainment company. Last month it rolled out a refreshed brand identity, also developed by Uncommon, and today it launches a revamped version of its app. To attract new and younger audiences, SiriusXM is also embracing a new approach to advertising—a genre-specific strategy that will dig into fandoms around different types of music, as well as sports. The messaging will emphasize the deep curation on its platforms and position its on-air hosts as the ultimate superfans. The company has dubbed this new brand platform “Closer.” Since the rollout of the rebrand in November, SiriusXM has been emphasizing that its platforms bring fans “closer to what they love.” “Our core audience represents about 25% of the audio market in the U.S. But we identified another 25% which is our growth segment, which are slightly younger, more diverse, passionate about music or sports,” Suzi Watford, the company’s chief growth officer, told Ad Age. “We recognized that we had to behave slightly differently in order to attract that audience.” The rebrand was step one. In a nod to the celestial origins of the brand’s name, Uncommon developed a star-themed logo to represent Sirius, aka the “Dog Star,” which is the brightest star in the night sky. The company’s old puppy mascot, Stella, was also brought back. The new app, too, is designed to bring fans closer, through features such as improved search, recommendation discovery and better integration between the car app and mobile app. Finally, the advertising celebrates bringing fans closer by digging deeper into genres, spotlighting the SiriusXM hosts who specialize in them, and leaning into the kind of playfulness and spirit seen in the heavy-metal video. “In customer research with these new audiences, we found we have an opportunity to bring some fun and energy back into the brand,” said Watford. “It’s something that exists within SiriusXM’s programming. We should be able to showcase that.” Launching the new approach with heavy-metal music made sense for a few reasons, she added. Metal overindexes with these younger target audiences, SiriusXM host Jose Mangin is one of the experts in the genre and juxtaposing the brightness of the holidays with the darkness of metal felt promisingly cheeky. “We see an increase in listening at this time of year in general, as people want to hear ‘Jingle Jamz’ and other holiday music,” Watford said. “But if you’re a metalhead, you just want to listen to your music all year-round. We thought it was fun to think about, ‘Yes, it's the holidays and there’s a lot of celebratory music out there. But what if you just want to listen to Pantera or Slipknot?’” In terms of media strategy, the campaign rollout is taking what Watford described as an “inside out” approach, targeting subscribers first, then Mangin fans and then the broader target market. The buy includes wild postings in New York; custom digital advertising and content sponsorships with WMX, Vevo and Genius; a sponsorship on The Pit (the top metal and hard rock news account on TikTok globally); and social promo and full video and roadblock display, preroll and social targeting to rock and metal genres. See our Year in Review stories here There is also a giveaway element. One winner will be flown to meet Mangin, record a takeover on the Liquid Metal channel from his studio, and see Machine Head and Fear Factory’s concert at the Bellwether in Los Angeles. The winner will also get the metal sweater itself (encased in a glass box so they don’t impale themselves on the spikes). “Around this time of year, nobody ever stops to think about how all the festive cheer and merriment can have an effect on heavy metal fans,” said Sam Shepard, chief creative officer at Uncommon New York. “To put an end to this, we’ve made the most heavy metal Christmas sweater the world has ever seen with SiriusXM. Bringing metalheads closer to the music they love, showing that their obsession knows no holiday.” As SiriusXM navigates a busy holiday season—along with the rebrand, new app and metal-sweater campaign, it is also doing separate campaigns around new Kelly Clarkson and John Mayer channels—the company is also looking to 2024. It’s already identifying genres such as country and hip-hop for the next phases of its genre-based advertising. “How do we build on the brand positioning of ‘Closer’? How do we tap into genres and fandoms and really connect people in those content areas?” said Watford. “The fact that we have human curation at the center of what we are, and what we do, that really drives connection and community—we think that’s pretty special.”

SiriusXM made a holiday sweater for metalheads in campaign from Uncommon

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