The New York Times: Sirius Satellite Radio is joining the growing ranks of media outlets that accept liquor advertising, as it begins running musical commercials for Diageo’s Tanqueray gin.
Neither Sirius Satellite Radio nor its rival, XM Satellite Radio, carries commercials on any of its scores of music channels. Both carry spots on most of their talk, sports, news and entertainment channels, although there are fewer commercials than during a typical hour on a traditional, or terrestrial, radio station.
XM already accepts liquor advertising, and has run commercials for brands like Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey, sold by a unit of Brown-Forman.
The arrival of liquor advertising on Sirius is emblematic of how the relationships between marketers and media companies are being transformed as consumers embrace new options like satellite radio.
“These days, the media are as important as the message,” said Chris Parsons, a vice president for marketing at Diageo in New York, particularly in reaching “the leading-edge consumer” who is an early adopter of new technologies.
Diageo turned to Sirius for the campaign, Mr. Parsons said, because it wanted to run the song commercial for two and a half minutes; traditional radio stations and networks generally do not accept spots longer than 60 seconds.
In addition to Sirius, the Tanqueray song used in the spot can be heard on and downloaded from tanqueray.com and getyouriceon.com. About 30,000 copies of the song on CD’s are being given away at performances by the comedian Mike Epps on a national tour through January that is being sponsored by Tanqueray.
Grey and Diageo plan to add an additional Web site, tanqueraytracks.com, on Nov. 14, which will offer a series of brand-track songs, including a holiday tune.
