When it comes to brainstorming most big radio campaigns, or any ad campaign really, much is done to engineer the perfect conditions for creative thinking.
I’m talking about booking out the meeting room with a view, scheduling regular breaks, even ordering catering so the flow isn’t interrupted by something so primal as hunger.
However, if you’re Triple M’s content director, Laura Bouchet, all that’s required is a quick drive home on the M5.
That’s where the idea for Triple M’s breakfast show’s mischievously cheeky new TVC came to life, a creative that leans directly into the chaos currently reshaping Sydney’s radio breakfast market.
Triple M Sydney’s cheeky billboard campaign
The spot forms part of a broader campaign extension for Beau, Cat & Woodsy, positioning the trio as Sydney’s longest-running breakfast team following a wave of recent shake-ups across competing FM shows.
The campaign builds on activity first launched on 5 March, in the immediate aftermath of Kyle & Jackie O’s exit from Sydney mornings, when Triple M moved quickly with a reactive OOH push declaring the team “Sydney’s Longest Running Breakfast Team* Since Tuesday”, later updated to “Since Last Week”.
Now, that same tongue-in-cheek positioning carries through to screen, with a new TVC set in a satirical “War Room”, where the hosts plot against rival breakfast shows, only to realise many of them are no longer on air.
Mediaweek managed to catch up with Bouchet, who pulled over to take our phone call while driving down the, we kid you not, M5.
Mediaweek: How did you come up with the idea?
Laura Bouchet: So it actually started a couple of weeks earlier, before the Kyle and Jackie O news had come out.
We were talking in the studio because we were completely gobsmacked at everything that was going on in the Sydney Breakfast market, with all three big heritage shows disappearing from breakfast.
And we kind of went, oh my gosh, we’re actually Sydney’s longest-running breakfast team now. So that line just stuck with me; it felt like it captured the moment perfectly.
So at that time, I went straight to our production team and got it on the air pretty much immediately.
We spoke with network heads and the marketing team, and marketing turned around a billboard with that line within around 24 hours.
Then, when we had the TVC brainstorm, I kept coming back to wanting one simple cohesive campaign that we could use everywhere, on air, on socials, digital and TV.
I was driving on the M5 to work one morning, as I always do, and the guys had been talking about having a (Steve) Bradbury moment as Sydney’s longest-running breakfast team, and then it just clicked. I thought that was it, that’s the campaign.
So I literally voice-noted a rough script in the car and shot it straight through to the marketing team and the Triple M network heads, and they loved it.
It was filmed, turned around and on air within a week, which is pretty incredible.
MW: Usually, these kinds of things are created by ad agencies and the like – how did the team and the network react when you presented them your idea?
LB: I don’t come from an advertising background, but I think it’s actually sort of what helped us here. I know the breakfast show really well. I know the tone, and Triple M has a very specific tone. It’s cheeky. It’s irreverent. It’s a bit unpredictable, and I think sometimes that can be hard to manufacture externally.
MW: The Sydney Breakfast radio market is in a whirlwind at the moment. What’s the vibe like at Triple M?
LB: Really positive, and really driven. We’ve always been that way, though.
We’re always motivated and focused on winning in Sydney.
I think what’s changed for us is now we’ve got a really clear opportunity in front of us.
You know, Sydney Breakfast is the toughest market in the country, and those big shows have been around for decades, so we always knew it was going to be something we had to chip away at over time.
But right now, there’s obviously this once-in-a-lifetime moment where listeners are moving. They’re curious, and they’re sampling, and we’re working really hard to meet them.
The team at Triple M Breakfast with Beau, Cat & Woodsy. Source: SCA
MW: Will you be changing anything to win over those listeners who are now looking for a new home?
LB: We’re not going to suddenly become something we’re not. You know, we’re not going to, you know, you’re not going to hear an overall KIIS-like music format on Triple M. Beau (Ryan) isn’t going to try and be Kyle (Sandilands). We’re still very much Triple M.
But what we are doing is we’re opening the door a bit more to listeners.
We’ve been running something on the air for the last few weeks called Triple M’s Test Drive, which involves inviting new listeners to come in, test-drive us, and then call us up to share their thoughts. We’re genuinely listening and actioning a lot of that feedback.
We’re just experimenting and having a bit of fun with it, but we’re staying true to who we are.
MW: What does 2026 have in store for the show?
LB: I guess it’s more of what people are responding to, only bigger. It’s already a pretty chaotic show, so more chaos, more laughs.
There are a lot of those unexpected moments that you can’t really plan, which is the magic of the show.
You’ll see a lot of them more out in Sydney. They did a lot of that last year and that’s going to continue. It’s really hard to confine them in a studio. They want to be out in the suburbs where they live, spending time with listeners. So there’ll be plenty of that.
Like I said, we are listening to what Sydney wants, and we’re going to meet them there. And that’s what we think will cut through.