NOVA Entertainment recently unveiled its latest campaign for the Ben, Liam and Belle breakfast show in Melbourne, following on from an out-of-home push at the show's launch in December of last year.
The trio revealed to AdNews that despite only being on air for around six weeks, they've already seen strong listener interaction and a positive response from the community.
AdNews spoke to Adam Johnson, NOVA's chief growth officer, about the creative strategy behind the campaign, the reason for using OOH before digital and the company's hopes on how the Melbourne market will respond to the new show.
Johnson said the objectives of the campaign revolved around launching the trio into the Melbourne market, relying on being highly visible across the city to ensure it landed with audiences.
“From a TV and video point of view, the spine of the campaign is a series of six different 15 second spots that show different scenarios where we see Ben and Liam adjusting to life in Melbourne.
“Outside of those 15 second spots, there's two different 30 second spots, which are almost kind of the ‘best ofs’. We launched the campaign with those 30 second ads to really kind of land the idea of introducing Melbournians to the Ben, Liam and Belle dynamic with various different scenarios and then roll out the 15 second ads to give a deeper insight into those scenarios.
“On top of that, we have multiple short form videos for pre roll, for online video and for social, which are six seconds long. These are a really quick wrap of the interaction between Ben, Liam and Belle as they go about their day in Melbourne, with a strong call to action of ‘listen to NOVA 100’ and it's all under the banner of ‘new to Melbourne’.
Johnson said that the creative strategy of the campaign was informed by the duo of Ben and Liam being new to Melbourne, with the TVC spots using this as an anchoring angle throughout to turn a potential obstacle into an advantage.
“Everyone is aware that Ben and Liam are not from Melbourne, but in this day and age, people travel around and make new cities their home. The thinking was, ‘how do we take advantage of that rather than shy away from it?’.
“The creative strategy really is to speak to Melbournians about the uniqueness of their city through the lens of two people learning about living in Melbourne. It was such a gift that Belle is Melbourne born and bred as it gives us a really lovely comedic hook to then have her schooling the boys on such things as ‘what is a hook turn?’, ‘how do you order a coffee in Melbourne?’ and ‘how do you dress for a Melbourne day out when it can be four seasons in one day?’.
“Certainly, people in Adelaide took Belle to their hearts, so part of this campaign is for Melbournians to take Ben and Liam to their hearts.”
NOVA opted to utilise out of home advertising for the first campaign in December due to the effectiveness that the medium can deliver around immediate reach, scale and impact.
“You're constrained by the size of the billboard, which means you have to be really clear and pointed in your message. You can dominate a city and when you have a single launch in a single market like Melbourne with the right level of investment, you could be everywhere.
“Because they launched at the start of December before people went away for their Christmas breaks and people were still moving around the city going to work or school or uni, we used outdoor – as well as a lot of digital and social in terms of propagating the content from the show to audiences - to get that launch."
One of the OOH campaigns that NOVA ran in December to promote Ben, Liam and Belle.
Johnson said it would have been remiss of the company to start a TV and video campaign in December, come off air over Christmas and have to rebuild in the new year, so they opted to lead with OOH in December before turning to TVCs in January.
“The thinking was ‘let's use outdoor to make a splash and then from mid-January, build a story around who they are and why you should listen’ over the next three to six months, when we can really build that story.
“We shot so many different ads, so we can constantly try new creative to keep the campaign fresh. That ad stock over time will build and therefore so will the salience of the show, the brand awareness and ultimately, the audience.
Johnson said that for the majority of NOVA’s shows, they run campaigns across all digital platforms, due to the advantage that their in-house studios bring.
“Our radio studios are now effectively TV studios; therefore, the video content you can get out of the show is super high quality and can be framed for various different platforms.
“As people are scrolling through various social platforms, we can give non-listeners a taste of what you will hear when you listen, as well as what these people look like and what the chemistry is, so the digital platforms provide a really good way for audiences to sample that content.”
As well as their 6am to 9am spot in Melbourne, Ben, Liam and Belle will also continue to have a presence in Adelaide, with a broadcast going to air each weekday on Nova 919 from 6am to 7am. The show is tailored for the Adelaide market with three breaks that are recorded specifically for Adelaide listeners, as well as some of the best highlights from the Melbourne show.
“Because they've got such a loyal audience in Adelaide, we felt that logistically with technology, we can now make that work. We wanted to make sure that Adelaide listeners still have access to these three people they've had in their lives for the past three years and Ben, Liam and Belle themselves wanted to maintain a presence in that city.
“They'll take some of the Melbourne show content that isn't Melbourne-specific - content that’s relevant to all cities - and then do separate records for the Adelaide audience as well, a bit like in the way they do their radio show and then do separate recordings for the show’s podcast.
“They are very much the Nova 100 Melbourne breakfast show, but because of our ability to effectively repurpose content in other markets, we're able to provide a product for Adelaide where they still maintain a presence in that market. At 7am, they hand over to the main breakfast show in Adelaide, Jodie & Hayesy, so listeners will get a real mix of the old and the new.
"We think it's a really potent combination and that 6am to 9am slot in Adelaide is a fantastic listen."
Johnson said that NOVA’s aim is to be number one in every market, but he knows such a goal takes time to come to fruition.
“This is the first step on a long journey off the back of an incredibly established breakfast show that we had previously for seven years in Melbourne. We want to maintain as much of that audience as we can and we want to add new listeners to that as well based on a new, fresh product with some of the most exciting, and in my opinion, funniest broadcasters in the country.
“We're under no illusions that that won't happen overnight but absolutely, that's the ambition and the show has it in it to become the most-listened-to breakfast show in that market.”
Johnson said that from a breakfast point of view, it's all about finding the right team that have the most relevance to that market.
“Whether that is a younger show like Ben, Liam and Belle, a more established show, like Nathan, Nat & Shaun in Perth or a combination of comedians and sportspeople that we have in Brisbane with Ash, Luttsy & Susie, it's about the right show for that time slot in the market.
“On a broader network and brand level, NOVA’s about fresh hits and throwbacks, and therefore we want to appeal to a younger audience, because the older audience is pretty well served in Australia and we do a fantastic job with Smooth in that space, particularly having expanded nationally last year.
“Giving talent like Ben, Liam and Belle a platform in a market as significant for our business and for our industry as Melbourne is a real signal of intent that we believe in the future of radio, we believe that broadcasts like Ben, Liam and Belle will help the appeal of it and it fits perfectly into our overall brand proposition.
Johnson said that Melbourne is an interesting market, with incredibly high cumes ratings-wise and more stations that rate over a million listeners than any other city.
“Melbournians like choice - they like to move around the dial - and therefore, our job is to ensure that we become and remain part of their repertoire of listening. We believe the content is good enough to make that stick, drive listening time spent and gain share from that.
“It's an incredibly important market for us. It's highly competitive and we’re under no illusions around that, but we think we've got a really, really strong proposition, a great product and a really good story to tell.”
Johnson noted that until the first GfK survey is released in mid-March, NOVA won’t have a solid picture of how the show is performing in its early stages, but he said that the calls that the show is getting reveals that people are leaning into the show and the content is resonating.
“If we use social engagement and call volumes as a kind of leading indicator, we're delighted about what a strong start the show has had, but as ever, the proof will be in the survey results.
"Survey one will be the first survey of many where we will grow the show and grow the station market.”
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