“There’s three world class stations all fighting for a share of the same Melbourne audience,” said Wade Kingsley, founder of The Creative Coach and co creator of the podcast Game Changers Radio, speaking at RadioDays Asia 24.
With GfK Radio 360 Survey 6 out this morning, October 1, Kingsley says we can learn strategic lessons from this breakfast battle by analysing the decisions made by the main three market players, stations KIIS 101.1 (ARN), 101.9 THE FOX (SCA) and NOVA 100 Entertainment.
First some background about the audience in the larger Australian markets in Melbourne and Sydney. The Australian market size (10+) is similar in both markets, over 4.8 million. The audience segment 25-54 years, with a slight female skew is 49% of total listeners in Melbourne and Sydney.
The first move was made in late November ’23 when ARN signed breakfast team Kyle and Jackie O with a new $200m contract for 10 years. Next Jase and Lauren were let go from ARN to make way for Kyle and Jackie O to be networked into Melbourne. Jase and Lauren were then signed by NOVA and have a 7 week start in a ratings period. At FOX Fifi, Fev and Nick start the battle in first place.
Kingsley said the ratings so far show that KIIS breakfast hasn’t improved since the arrival of Kyle and Jackie O. Jase and Lauren have taken most of their audience across to Nova.
The following are five lessons your station can learn from the Melbourne Radio Wars, said Kingsley.
1. Remove long term personalities from your teams at your peril. You may have a view on the future potential of your talent that may not line up with what your audience think. The problem is they might not tell you until they’re gone. You need to go deeper than surface level research.
2. Marketing doesn’t solve every problem you have. They spent $3 million marketing a product that’s more sexualised and over the top, asking the audience to make up their own mind about Kyle and Jackie O. It’s tempting to think you are heading in the right direction because you’re spending a lot. The marketing needs to have a clear “job to be done that aligns with your most important strategic challenge” approach.
3. Manage expectations internally and externally. Better to play the safe game and be quietly confident rather than noisily incorrect. This especially applies for marketing efforts for your brand. Your Sales team are the best indicator of how others feel about the change.
4. When fighting over the same audience, there may not be enough to go around so someone will go hungry. Consider how you can find a niche/ angle that you can build from. Possibly Kyle and Jackie could have focused more on the male audience.
5. Friends who are funny still wins on breakfast radio. Think about who your audience would prefer to spend time with. The closer you have those people on the air, the closer you are to success.
The team from the podcast Game Changers Radio have proposed a battle plan from the perspective of: A. Market Leader, B. Existing show new market, C. Same show new home.
With the next ratings due out October 1, all eyes and ears will be on Melbourne to see what survey 6 results bring for all the three warring stations.
Listen to the Game Changers: Melbourne Radio Wars podcast here