Hot on the heels of winning two awards at the MTN Radio Awards this weekend – Best Breakfast Show and Best Content Producer – Jacaranda 94.2’s Just Plain Breakfast team is flying high, but certainly not resting on its laurels.
Judges said a key to hosting this seriously successful breakfast show was the team’s ‘unexpected and unconventional’ ways of doing things. The judges said it “this show is pacy, it flows easily, and it provides some compelling and unpredictable listening. A lot of what happens on the show is fun and irreverent and there is a great deal of spontaneity”.
TheMediaOnline caught up with marketing manager, Jenny Griesel, to find out just what makes a seriously successful breakfast show.
Just how do you manage that ‘unpredictable’ element so well?
“The set structure of ads, calls, live reads and music spots aside, it’s what happens between A and B” that adds tremendously to the listener appeal of Jacaranda 94.2’s Just Plain Breakfast.
“Unexpected and unconventional ways of doing run through each of the team members’ veins: whether it be a clever idea that came up last night for today, earlier this morning for later this morning, “just now” for “now now”, or even a moment ago for NOW… Just Plain Breakfast fills a blank on-air canvas better than any other team in their league.
“Competitions, jokes, quick polls, shoot-from-the-hip interviews, dares, stunts, fun flirtations with the wrong side of the LAW and more… Just Plain Breakfast can take it, run with it and make it work brilliantly!”
While the team might have unconventional ways of handling the show, its backbone is the content. What are the pillars of your content strategy that have helped win this award?
“Just Plain Breakfast’s content (as with all Jacaranda 94.2’s content) needs to fit a fundamental profile for Jacaranda 94.2’s 25-49 LSM 6-10 target market across Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga & North West. To keep the target audience that advertisers invest in listening for longer, content has to be:
– within broadcasting guidelines set out by various authorities
– well researched & accurate
– relevant
– up to date
– exciting
– engaging
– well packaged and
– well presented
– local
– optimistic and sometimes humorous
What are the ingredients of a great breakfast show?
Knowing your listeners – their lifestyle, hopes, dreams, fears and the topics on their minds.
Constant planning, constant improvement & openness to want to improve all the time. A dedicated team that work well with each other, that are flexible, quick thinking and focussed on what the audience wants
Knowing FIRST.
Regular benchmarks – especially for the information driven features like traffic & weather & keeping to them so listeners know when to tune in for these features that often play a major role in their decision making
Delivering the freshest in news, sport and entertainment.
Knowing the right people – being able to access the biggest celebrities when the moment needs it
Changing people’s lives for good both on and off air with community-focused projects – like Good Morning Angels
Running super cool competitions and promotions
Thinking on your feet and having FUN
Music that gets the day started on a positive note – only the best will do for breakfast
How important is the cult of personality in breakfast radio?
A personality that involves, excites and MOVES others is fundamental – both on its own and as complement to other personalities on the show.
The key to running an entertaining, convincing and cohesive breakfast show lies in creating enough freedom for each individual to effectively play to his/her own strengths, passions and interests, but still maintaining a shared sense of direction and purpose.
How has social media helped / or not in your drive to success?
“YouTwitFace” has transformed traditional “watercooler talk” into something that is more readily, more quickly and more widely available. It gives listeners access to a richer variety of content, which makes it an essential counterpart to a good on-air strategy.
As an example, Jacaranda 94.2 Just Plain Breakfast’s Facebook Fan Drive in the latter part of 2010 racked up more than 70 000 fans in one month…and is now at well over 100 000 fans. The level of virtually immediate interaction and free exchange of information it offers between SA’s leading breakfast show and its fans is unparalleled – making it key to the show’s overall success.
What do awards mean for a show such as this? A nice to have or good for business?
Most certainly a bit of both! Awards like these aren’t just nice to add to the awards-showcase, but also go to show that hours of work, and burning the midnight oil, accomplish more than just creating a “nice to have on air” product.
It substantiates the fact that the on-air product created by the team at Jacaranda 94.2 moves MILLIONS. It informs, entertains and involves. It achieves reach, impact, and great return on investment. Good for business? OH YES!
Where to from here? How do you top this?
A broadcast from SPACE?! (Hmmmm…. now that we mention it… J )
On a more serious note: Jacaranda 94.2 and the Just Plain Breakfast team, whilst being over the moon with winning prestigious awards such as these, remain absolutely focused on winning AUDIENCES in their core market.
So where do we go from here? We do MORE of what has worked really well and less of what hasn’t. We win over even more listeners and investors across our footprint, especially in the East and West Rand of Jo’burg. We bring even more ROI, more exciting and innovative ideas to the table – a table that serves breakfast that is South Africa’s favourite, but BETTER!
