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NOVA’s Adam Johnson on what it can offer advertisers as he chats survey 5 results
After the fifth GfK metro radio ratings of 2022 dropped, Mumbrella's Emma Shepherd caught up with Nova’s chief growth officer, Adam Johnson, to celebrate the network remaining as the country’s FM leader in both share and cume, while explaining the importance of the company’s all-audio strategy looking ahead.
“You definitely caught us on a good day,” says Nova’s chief growth officer, Adam Johnson. “It’s one of those days that you really love your job because you can see that all of the hard work has translated into healthy numbers, so, everyone on the network is delighted with survey five.”
In this book, Nova was announced as Australia’s #1 FM network in share (9.7%) and cume (4,303,000) – 343,500. Another key highlight was the success of Nova’s Kate, Tim, and Joel and being titled the #1 national drive show in share (11.6&0 and cume (1.658,400).
Nova chief growth officer, Adam Johnson (pictured)
“In terms of national shows, especially in drive, when you’ve got talents like Kate, Tim, and Joel that have genuine appeal, you know that this is something for all Australians,” says Johnson. “We know that we can find an audience for it, and commercially there’s a big chunk of advertisers that have the ambition to reach every single Australian, and we can help them with that, within their plans.”
“From a commercial point of view, it gives them a really good way to up weigh certain states where customers and clients have individual targets and business objectives on a state-by-state basis but then driving that national reach and cover is something that Kate, Tim, and Joel can help bring to the party really strongly, and we see that with the kind of brands that jump on board with us,” he says.
In Sydney, like the last survey, Nova’s Kate, Tim, and Joel again gained listeners with a bump of 0.4 percentage points, to a 9.7% share, while SmoothFM’s Bryan Webb grew his audience share again this book, surpassing WSFM’s Steve Fitton. Webb finished in second place, with a share of 10%.
“Sydney and Melbourne, hold strong for both Nova and Smooth FM,” Johnson says. “Smooth in both markets, keeping above that million mark, which we love to see.”
He adds: “The standout ones for us are Brisbane and Perth, in particular. We had unbelievable results. Brisbane went over 700,000 for Nova, it’s great to see.”
Tim Blackwell, Kate Ritchie and Joel Creasey
In Perth, Nova 93.7 once again took out the top spot for People 10+, breakfast, and drive, with SCA’s MIX 94.5 coming in second place again.
“In Perth, for Nathan, Nat, and Shaun to have a 20% share for a non-speech radio station is almost unheard of,” he admits. “To have one in five listeners tuning in to that show is a remarkable outcome for us. It was a good day for us at Nova.”
In Adelaide, the station witnessing the biggest jump overall, was FIVEaa (8.9%), up 0.9 points,” with Johnson saying, “It was great to see the FiveAA result in Adelaide, to be the number one breakfast show with David & Will is just fantastic.
“Competing in that market is amazing to see. Likewise, with evenings in Adelaide, we had a 20% share there, too.”
Johnson did mention a thing to point out, outside of FM, is the strong momentum and organic growth from DAB.
Nova 93.7 Nate, Nat and Shaun in Perth (pictured)
“We know this has continuously been growing as more people turn to digital, whether it be at home, or in the car,” Johnson explains. “We grew almost double digits, up 9% survey to survey with DAB+ reach. This DAB+ result makes us really proud because a lot of the growth is driven by mood and genre-based stations, not just a simulcast of what you hear on 96.9. It really broadens out the appeal of radio when you can get more flavours of our brands using that DAB+ spectrum.”
As for how listening habits have shifted post-pandemic, Johnson says the biggest change is seeing the during the day FM listening return to normal pre-pandemic levels.
“FM is definitely going back towards a more traditional shape. We’re seeing a return to normal in terms of commute peak traffic, but what’s been great to see, particularly on Smooth, is that those day part numbers are really holding up,” explains Johnson. “That means for the people who are working from home, who have discovered audio on their smart speaker or listening through their browser, daytime listening is holding really strong.”
“We are seeing a return of some familiar habits, but as we live in this hybrid world, audio is still following the audience,” he says. “Whether they are going back to the commute or if they’re listening at home and keeping the radio on whilst they’re working.”
When probed about audio measurement, and whether or not he sees a better way of measuring the success of each network and radio show, Johnson admits the GfK surveys are a strong starting point to see who the biggest players are in market.
“The GfK surveys are so robust and in-depth that whatever you are looking at from a commercial standpoint, should always come from these surveys,” he admits. “Share is a good way of looking at how an advertiser might look to divide their spend across various radio partner networks because it’s a good barometer of who has got the biggest slice of the pie from a listening point of view.”
He adds: “In terms of the role of audio in their media plan, however, I think you need to look at reach because ultimately because you need to look at how many customers of mine will I actually reach. It’s so gratifying to say that we as a network reach six million Australians each week, and that should be the starting point for any advertiser, the look at share numbers to see where you’ll put those individual dollars.”
Looking ahead, Johnson says the network’s focus continues to be its all-audio strategy. “This just means that we genuinely want people to come into the Nova family, on the platform, and on the brand that works for you, which means being on the right platforms, at the right time, with the right content. We make sure that we have quality content at the forefront, content first alongside distribution,” explains Johnson.
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