Nova is putting its talent front-and-centre in a campaign that coincides with today’s launch of two familiar shows in unfamiliar timeslots: Nova’s fresh Sydney breakfast show, Ricki-Lee and Tim, and the national drive show, Fitzy, Wippa and Kate.
As announced late last month, Nova has flipped its national drive and Sydney breakfast lineups, both of which debut in their new homes on Monday morning.
An out-of-home campaign launches today across Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane featuring the two teams, plus other key Nova talent from each market.
The campaign builds off Nova’s brand platform, Don’t Think, Just Nova, which launched last April.
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As Adam Johnson, Nova’s chief growth officer, tells Mumbrella, the campaign was intended to be a two-step process.
“It was definitely designed to be a brand platform to get people to think about the role that live radio plays in their lives,” Johnson said.
“The brief this time around was, how do we apply that to specific shows — and obviously the catalyst for that being the launch of a brand new show in Sydney breakfast, and a new national drive show.”
He said the plan was to “take a good six-to-nine months to let the brand thinking bed in and start to allow, “Don’t Think, Just Nova” to get into the lexicon of the brand and hopefully culture.”
The late January timing of the lineup switch was a curious one, given most of radio’s 2026 lineup changes were announced towards the end of 2025. According to Johnson, this was a deliberate move.
“Everybody else was doing it then,” he said. “I think we try and zig when they zag, and we felt that this announcement and this change really deserves a amount of clear air. We felt that four weeks into the survey period gives us a really good long run.
It gives us some clear air, both for listeners to go and trial and for the media to pick up on it.”
Adam Johnson
He said the change wasn’t made lightly.
“I think the schedule lineup consistency has been one of the keys to our success over the years. So, this was considered over a long period of time.” Moving Ricki-Lee and Tim from a slot where they constantly won the ratings was another curious move, but Johnson explains it was this success that prompted it.
“It was the performance of them in Drive that gave us the confidence that they would build a Sydney audience for us. And equally, the Fitzy, Wippa, and Kate show, the personnel of that show all being known to all Australians around the country means that it would be a fantastic drive show.
“We think we are book ending the day here in a really strong way.”
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