Footy factor swells 'Triple Men', ARN back Kiis to overtake WSFM and why Ross is the boss

By AdNews | 8 July 2014
 

While 2GB still dominates, ARN's big push in Sydney is paying off with another marketing burst for Kiis set to propel it back to number one FM spot within the next four months, according to ARN's national content director Duncan Campbell. After that the network will turn its focus to Melbourne where Gold dropped back, according to the fourth survey of the year.

Triple M picked up some of that audience but Campbell said that was “because of the footy. That surge always happens at this time of year. It's not sustainable. I call them a one-season wonder...”

Chief content officer at Southern Cross Austereo, Guy Dobson acknowledged the Melbourne footy factor but said Triple M, aka “Triple Men” was the place to advertise to blokes and the network was not about to dilute that. The station had “found it's place” he reckoned.

“For many years there was a school of thought to make it as big and broad and as mass as possible, try to get grocery buyers on board,” he said. “But at the end of the day we play rock music, we have great man appeal breakfast shows, we have football four or five days out of seven for God's sake. So while we're not going out of our way to alienate females, we are ostensibly a male network. We dominate men in Australia so if you want to get any man to buy a product, you best put a commercial on Triple M.”

That's a different end of the scale to what Nova is trying to do with Smooth. Asked if Triple M was the antidote Dobson said it was not even on the radar.

“We don't even look at Smooth. They're two different beasts.”

Group programme director at Nova Entertainment, Paul Jackson said the slight dip for Smooth in Melbourne was “nothing we would sweat about”. And the footy factor was nothing the network hadn't seen coming. “It was 6.9% [between Smooth, Fox, Triple M and Nova 100] last time around and we're all still within a point of each other.”

Nova 96.9 dipped slightly in Sydney too but Jackson said the slight variations and “statistical errors” were normal from book to book and that the “marginal” audience declines were not reflected in revenues.

While Campbell talked up Kiis returning to the top of the FM pile in Sydney within a couple of books, Jackson was not so sure.

“For me it looks like Kiis has peaked and that suggests for me that the wave that crashed in for them is receding.”

SCA's Dobson kept his council on Kiis and Kyle & Jackie O, maintaining that SCA was now happy with 2Day FM's sound and format and that “advertisers are reaping rewards in that day part, so clients are happy, we're happy internally. You trust your ears and at some stage our strategy will play out and we will grow.”

While Nova is trying to woo media buyers in Melbourne with an experiential hotel suite, Dobson remained tightlipped on SCA's plans to reconnect with buyers after a long period of market leadership. SCA does have a plan, he insisted, but it did not involve hypnosis.

“We have some external plans to connect with media buyers and we'll role those out over the next 12 months, but I’m not sure what a hotel suite where you offer hypnosis to fall asleep listening to Smooth does [to attract media buyers].”

ARN's Campbell though again defended suggestions that Kyle & Jackie O had scared off some advertisers, particularly towards the end of their reign at SCA.

“We have had none of those issues. They are taking regular client visits, with clients coming in and them going out to agencies as well. They are doing for us what they never did for SCA. That demonstrates their commitment.”

As a result, he said dollars “flowing in to WSFM and Kiis are very strong for June and July and August looking forward.”

Campbell said that Tim 'Rosso' Ross was probably his pick as most commercially savvy presenter at ARN.

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