NOVA’s new breakfast team Jase & Lauren has climbed to second place in a highly-competitive Melbourne breakfast radio market and chief content officer Brendan Taylor couldn’t be more pleased.
Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips were dumped from KIIS at the end of last year, when Kyle and Jackie O signed a $200 million, ten-year deal which saw them take over the Melbourne breakfast slot. NOVA quickly snapped up the popular pair, and now they find themselves slaying the famous Sydney team they were replaced by.
So quick was the move that Adam Johnson, NOVA’s chief growth officer, revealed on a recent episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast that Jase & Lauren had to be secretly escorted into the network building via the basement just to get new press shots.
During the most recent radio survey released this week, Kyle and Jackie O failed to move the dial, with their new KIIS Breakfast show sitting at 5.9% market share for the second survey straight. By comparison, Jase & Lauren jumped from 8.7% to 9.6% to take second-place in FM, coming within 0.8% of Christian O’Connell’s #1 FM show on GOLDFM.
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NOVA’s chief content officer Brendan Taylor spoke to Mumbrella shortly after the radio ratings were released this week.
Let’s start with Jase & Lauren. Excellent result. Second in Breakfast, and within a percentage point of Christian O’Connell. You must be thrilled with that.
Taylor: I’m absolutely thrilled for Jase, Lauren, Clint and the entire team. To be two full surveys in, to be that 9.6 share, you know, it’s the best result Nova’s seen in the Melbourne market for 7-plus years. And from a cume perspective, to be the most listened-to breakfast show in the market, you know, it’s just one of those days. It’s really pleasing to see that it’s come together at these early stages, having a connection with the audience.
I’m really thrilled for the team, because I know how much emotion comes with presenting a show like this. And, you know, particularly with what’s happened with them over the last 12 months. So, yeah, we’re absolutely thrilled for them.
It also shows they have brought across an audience, because KIIS are now way down in the rankings, and NOVA is sitting at #2 in Breakfast. That must be pleasing to know you made the right call when you signed them up.
We often reflect now, and say that Jase and Lauren and Clint always should have been on Nova, in that sense. But, yeah, it’s credit to them. They’re supported by Brody [Pummeroy] and Ali [Munro] and Jaz [Keane], from a producing point of view, which gets the best out of the team. And then Sarah MacGillivray runs the show. And she has such a great, unique way of working with these guys and getting the best out of it.
But, as you say, with Jase and Lauren, it’s particularly the hard work they’ve done in the Melbourne market. It’s a really pleasing day and one of those days they’ll remember for a long time.
It’s such a hard-fought market at the moment. Everyone’s got huge campaigns out there in Melbourne Breakfast. It’s really heated up. And Smooth have got number two FM in Melbourne, which is amazing.
Yeah, definitely. It’s a really good point to bring up Smooth, you know, particularly with, as you said, so much noise in the marketplace, so much talkability, which I think is such a great thing for our industry.
But, you know, on a day like today, when you’ve got Smooth and Mike Perso in Breakfast there with Nicole Gunn going up half a share point, you know, 8.6. It’s such a great day to see Smooth and Nova being received so well from the audience here in Melbourne.
And Smooth is doing even better up here in Sydney, number one FM.
Yeah, I know. I think we spoke last time about Smooth and the consistency, but Pete Clay definitely has that. It’s an outstanding result. Again, you know, it’s such a competitive marketplace from a competitive landscape, to have Smooth Sydney, biggest cume-ing station in the country, number one FM station there. Number two in Melbourne. It just shows you the connection that people have with that brand.
Yeah, it’s great.
Again, like I’ve mentioned about Jason & Lauren, it’s really pleasing because I know how hard Pete and the Smooth team put into that product. So, yeah, it’s great to see their excitement today.
Obviously the media landscape tends to focus on Sydney and Melbourne, but Nova nationally is going gangbusters at the moment.
Yeah, the Brisbane and Adelaide markets are highly competitive. They’re very dynamic markets, and it’s great to see that there’s an audience there. And then Perth, back to number one, driven by that great result from Nathan, Nat and Sean [18.5% market share in Perth breakfast]. They’re just an amazing team. And just think, after all these years that they’re driving such strong results. It’s just amazing for them.
In terms of their percentage, they have the highest percentage share of breakfast in the country in any of the markets.
They went up 1.1. Even last year, they were over a 20 share last year, which just shows again…
It’s incredible.
Yeah, it’s just incredible. Particularly when you think about the big shows we have in this country. But Nathan, Nat and Sean are right up there.
Yeah, well, they have a bigger percentage of Adelaide than Ben Fordham has here in Sydney [17% vs 18.5%], which is quite incredible.
Yeah, it’s really good to see them spoken about in that way.
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