Media buyers welcome KiisFM rebranding but want clarity over target audience
Senior media buyers have welcomed the rebranding of Sydney radio station MixFM to KiisFM arguing it will deliver bigger audiences in 2014, but some have questions over the format and the jettisoning of a lucrative older female demographic.
On Sunday the Australian Radio Network (ARN) confirmed widespread industry speculation they would rebrand the Sydney radio station as KiisFM, stating an aim to “truly dominate” a younger 25 to 54 demographic.
However, management are keeping the music format under wraps until the new station launches on January 20, with ARN’s national content director Duncan Campbell telling Mumbrella today he did not think the decision would hurt them with advertisers.
“I don’t think it’s a risky strategy, we have to keep things close to our chest at the moment for competitive advantage,” he said. “But we won’t be straying off to classic hits or play country music.”
Today’s radio ratings showed MixFM had the smallest audience of all commercial FM stations, and Simon Ryan, CEO of Carat, said the move combined with the signing of controversial former 2DayFM breakfast hosts Kyle and Jackie O would expand the audience and position them well with a younger demographic.
“With attracting new talent and a new brand it brings new opportunity to bring new listeners, ” said Ryan. “The station are quite hopeful they are going to see a lift in audience which is only good for advertisers.”
CEO of media agency Initiative Andrew Livingstone said the branding and positioning were positive and added the breakfast slot had underperformed during the last year with hosts Sami Lukis and Yumi Stynes.
“I think Mix have a lot to gain, particularly from the rebrand and bringing over Kyle and Jackie O,” said Livingston. “MixFM’s Sydney breakfast show currently underperforms particularly against the rest of the day. The result is the previous breakfast lineup brings the rest of the day down whereas Kyle and Jackie O do the opposite.”
ARN’s Campbell confirmed they are still in talks with Stynes over a new show on the network, but confirmed Lukis has split with them.
However, other media buyers lamented the change of demographic and noted MixFM appealed to important and harder-to-reach female audience.
One media buyer, who declined to be named, said MixFM currently has briefs in market built around targeting a grocery buyer demographic, adding ARN has yet to fully clarify the full extent of the changes and which audience and what music format they are focusing on.
“We don’t want to alienate mums in the 35+ demographic and that is their niche at the moment,” said the senior media agency executive.
“It makes sense they want to make it younger, and there is no question that Kyle and Jackie O are going to bring across a younger diehard audience but to my mind that younger audience its unlikely to keep the station on the whole day and still be tuning in at 3pm during school pickups,” they added.
Other media buyers were more optimistic the changes would offer some interesting competition between the rebranded KiisFM and Kyle and Jackie O’s old stomping ground 2DayFM.
“It all really depends on how loyal the listeners are to Kyle and Jackie O as opposed to the station. Currently 2DayFM are the most loyal station by audience but there is some value in thinking the audience will come across,” said one buyer.
“There is a lot of similarity across both stations so to differentiate them is going to be a challenge. It will really depend on how well 2DayFM defends itself. If they get the likes of Merrick [Watts], Jules [Lund] and Sophie Monk then you potentially have a line up that is really well known.”
In the wake of KiisFM’s rebranding announcement 2DayFM responded with a three part teaser campaign asking “Who is the new 2DayFM breakfast team?”. The video features Watts, Lund and Monk who are widely tipped to replace Kyle and Jackie O on the station in 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKu8GdqMIzA
Simon Ryan said he believed there will be a contest for audience but that the result could be known within a couple of surveys.
“We will have see how they go in surveys one and two next year and I think the answer is they are obviously having some secrecy around that in terms of music etc,” said Ryan. “This is fine as they are trying to build a new audience through new talent and I think we would be quite keen in the new year to see what kind of audience is there.”
Saurin Worthington, executive business director of independent media agency TMS, said she expects a large part of the audience to move across and trial KiisFM.
“Kyle and Jackie O loyalists will move over very quickly,” said Worthington. “I would expect they would tune in for a while and if they haven’t gone too safe on them they will stay. The opportunity is for MixFM/KiisFM to grow this much younger demographic and get it well below the 35-54 and aim for the 18-35 market.
“They have a great line up with the likes of Ryan Seacrest and Rosso but it is tricky because they don’t have Perth and they are behaving differently in different markets, so Sydney will be Kiis and then they will retain MixFM in other markets.”
ARN is expected to roll out a significant marketing campaign for the new station, with the tagline “2Day was yesterday” tipped to feature prominently.
Havas Media’s new boss Mike Wilson said the branding challenge would come down to how they promoted the new KiisFM name to existing loyal listeners of Kyle and Jackie O.
“I think when you are making a move of that magnitude and its not just the content but the entire brand then it needs to be a comprehensive overhaul. I think the challenge is going to be to capitalise on what is going to be a strong property in its own right — Kyle and Jackie O,” said Wilson.
“I don’t think it be that much of a challenge for the show. I think Kyle and Jackie O’s product is probably stronger than the Kiis brand will be for quite some time. The challenge will be in how they use that to halo the rest of the station.”
Nic Christensen
