NOVA Entertainment has merged the faces of radio duo Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie for digital outdoor screens around Sydney.
Creative agency The Hallway developed a visual concept for the campaign, taking inspiration from the cover art of Queen’s album The Miracle.
AdNews spoke to Adam Johnson, NOVA's chief growth officer, who said that the thinking behind the campaign to announce the Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie show came down to taking the opportunity of something new to do something different.
“My concern was that people in Sydney are really familiar with Fitzy & Wippa as a show and as a brand, and also very familiar with Kate Ritchie being part of the drive show, so we wanted visual creative that made it impossible to avoid the fact that Kate had joined Fitzy & Wippa.
“The old adage of ‘you don’t have to like it, you’ve just got to notice it’ was a guiding principle."
Johnson said that NOVA knew when it was announced that Ricki-Lee was permanently joining Nova Network's national drive show, conjecture would start as to what Ritchie’s next project would be, so the network took the opportunity to use that creative to pre-announce Ritchie's role in the breakfast show before the official announcement on the Fitzy & Wippa show.
“We felt that the announcement of Ricki-Lee joining Nova’s drive show was the perfect time to ramp-up excitement about where Kate Ritchie would land. So, despite reports to the contrary, the decision to launch the ‘Coming Soon’ teaser ads the afternoon before the official on-air announcement was entirely deliberate!
“As soon as the announcement happened, that went from ‘Coming Soon’ to a campaign headline for this phase, which is ‘A new face for breakfast radio’, with the new show logo and a call to action. This is why we use digital outdoor as a medium, because we can really use by the minute, time-based creative.
“There's also a follow up campaign to the announced phase of Kate Ritchie on breakfast, which is a slightly more traditional approach, which shows the team under the under the headline of ‘Look who's come to breakfast’, which effectively speaks for itself.”
Johnson said that this was the first time in his experience at NOVA, or in the wider Australian radio market, that he’d seen a pre-announcement campaign rolled out like this.
“There was a time between announcing the end of Chrissie, Sam and Browny and confirming what Chrissie Swan’s new show would be. We used on-air hooks and social media to drive some intrigue around what Chrissie would be doing, but never to the point of above the line advertising to build on the existing conjecture around it.
“There was a lot of press around what Kate would do and ultimately, we wanted to use that pre-existing buzz as a platform to drive that before the official announcement on the show.”
The campaign for Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie wasn't the only one that NOVA unveiled - it also created an in-house campaign to announce the introduction of Ricki-Lee to the national drive show of Tim & Joel.
“The idea behind that, and particularly behind the line of ‘same same but different’, was on one level giving existing listeners comfort that both Joel and Tim are still on the show and this is the drive show that you know and love.
“With the announcement of Ricki-Lee being part of the NOVA family, that's a way to acquire new listeners, get people to tune in and give the show a sample.
“Ricki-Lee has brought so much to that show when she's been helping out over the past six or seven months and to have that confirmed means that we can now build a show around that chemistry they have, maintain audiences and bring new listeners in. ‘Same same but different’ is a really good summary of how that trio has evolved over time.”
Johnson said the radio network worked with The Hallway in 2022 on some brand strategy works for both the NOVA and Smooth brands, so they were familiar with the creative agency and felt like they “understood the DNA” of NOVA.
“It felt like a logical place to go in terms of what ended up being a relatively quick turnaround brief, which was that ‘you understand the brand, however this is really big news - for us, this is probably one of the biggest things to happen to the Sydney radio landscape for quite a while’.
“We knew that The Hallway could get up to speed very quickly because they understood our business and we know their team that really well too.”
With both Fitzy & Wippa and Tim & Joel now gaining another on-air talent to turn a duo into a trio, along with the recent elevation of Belle Jackson to the Melbourne breakfast show to become Ben, Liam & Belle, Johnson said that three seems to be the ‘magic number’.
“The majority of our shows for breakfast do have those three voices, the exception being Adelaide where it’s Jodie & Hayesy. It's the right number of personalities where you really get a great variety of voices, stories and backgrounds, good gender balance and different styles of humor, without it being that kind of format where you've got five or six people and they might clash and talk over each other and it becomes difficult to almost follow the conversation.
“It’s not by design – we’re not out there thinking ‘let's find three people’. Fitzy & Wippa have been incredibly successful for a number of years, but we know that Kate will add something to the show. She will bring a new dynamic, new stories and new viewpoints to listeners that wasn't there before, but it’s not saying that Fitzy & Wippa wasn't successful beforehand.
“With Melbourne, Belle became such a big part of the Ben & Liam show that it was just the right thing to do to have her as part of that show team; it happened organically over time. Similarly with Susie O'Neill in Brisbane; she was a guest contributor that over time has become such a part of the fabric of that show that it was the right thing for them to be fully represented in the show and in the branding.”
With the first radio ratings of the year set to land tomorrow morning, Johnson said that he knows success won’t happen overnight for the new lineups, but that NOVA is optimistic.
“It’s been a time of really exciting change for the NOVA lineup - new breakfast shows in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney, as well as a new addition to our number one drive show and Chrissie Swan taking over the 2pm to 4pm slot.
“We’re definitely looking forward to creating some really strong marketing and content campaigns moving forward to drive in new audiences, reminding existing listeners what great shows we have and bring new listeners in based on these fresh and exciting lineups.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.