Page 73 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2019

Out of Home
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Carefully targeted: Brendon Cook, CEO, oOh! Media
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Key plank: Print will remain part of the oOh! Media offering
He does believe that nothing is guaranteed, saying, “I’m not sitting here today looking 10 years ahead and saying there won’t be something like a cheap roll-up digital screen that brings the cost down to such a dramatic level that you might have one advertiser who has it for the whole day. And it only changes at
12 o’clock at night, and therefore regulators don’t care. Who is to know what’s around the corner? But for now print remains a key plank in the strategy and delivery for clients.
“The clients, the marketing agencies, advertising agencies, they still see the benefit of classic. We’ve seen some incredible campaigns, for example the NRMA regional campaign, which focused on a local area, going into each town with
its name on the billboard, and generating a huge response.”
oOh! bought leading wide format print business Cactus a decade ago, but the relationship is not exclusive either way. Cactus supplies oOh! but it does not form the majority of its work. Likewise oOh! buys print from other sources, although it uses Cactus effectively as its print manager.
For Cook the imperative for print
is clear, he says, “What we need to
do in a printing sense is constantly improve speed. That’s something we’re constantly working on, what every new bit of equipment we buy at Cactus is about. Quality is a given, so it’s really about speed, and our ability to get all the processes, effectively managing a quicker output into
the hands of an installer to get the installation up.
“Inside, we have a capacity that allows us to print things in 24 hour turnarounds, but you’ve still got
the physicality of installing. So we don’t just work on the print side, we have to work on the installation side. In fact, the print production is probably exceeding the speed that we take driving something somewhere and physically sticking it on a billboard.
“We have made major investments at Cactus. It is performing where we want it to be, as an independent print company that derives revenues that are associated with outdoor media.”
“From a pure advertising point of view, classic provides all the great strengths that the media has always had. And it is the oldest form of advertising in history – ithassurvivedthetestoftime.” Brendan Cook, CEO, oOh! Media
The operation uses print from other providers, although they have to go through a rigorous qualification analysis. Cook says, “We are in multiple markets, and sometimes because of speed we choose to have state-based printers take part of
jobs from us, across the board. That is something that will continue to expand. At the end of the day, we’re
a media company who prints to deliver a media product. So our job
is the media first. We’ve got to make sure print providers have the right capability to deliver, not only in a product point of view, but the speed point of view, and a certain standard point of view.”
Another potential threat to outdoor and print outdoor as part of that comes from the tech giants, with Facebook and Google
in particular hoovering up a huge 40 per cent of the total Australian advertising spend. Cook though says, “First, big tech has become
a serious buyer of outdoor media. Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, they all increasingly use outdoor, so they certainly recognise its value. Second, all studies show that digital online advertising works many times better when it is run
in conjunction with outdoor. And third, online ad fraud is a serious issue, with companies, SMEs in particular, sometimes paying for clicks that have never happened outside the world of bots.
“Reaching the right people, impacting the right eyeballs, in the right location, means that a digital
ad campaign is being more effective when it is used with outdoor. And that’s what we’re trying to do, you still get the value and benefits of outdoor, which is that big, bold statement.”
Cook’s 40 year career in outdoor has clearly left his appetite undiminished. He has no plans
to retire anytime soon from the business that he still runs, and which is now listed on the ASX. His brother, who was the second employee back in 1989, is still working alongside him as chief commercial and operating officer.
The company has acquired dozens of other businesses over the years, including most famously Adshel in last year’s mega merger shakedown which effectively left two major players in the industry. He says, “Humans are humans, and even in this era of screen time even younger people connect with outdoor media. Outdoor media is real advertising to real people.” 21
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