Page 13 - AdNews Magazine Jan-Feb 2021

Brendon Cook, CEO and founder of oOh!media at the time, penned an open letter in March which read in part:
“Like the rest of the world and companies in every sector of the economy, the out-of-home market is undoubtedly being impacted by the coronavirus. However, we continue to manage our operations appropriately, while looking after our customers and helping them get their messages to the Australian public.
“Our teams across Australia and New Zealand are actively making extensive use of the phone and video conferencing to liaise with cus- tomers and other stakeholders, and we are constantly in touch with them to discuss their requirements and manage their campaigns.
“While we’ve cut down on our travel, the general public are still out and about in the community – in shopping centres on foot and going around in their cars. On average footfall is rising in local cen- tres, and people are still getting out for exercise, as well as many other activities. In short, people are moving around locally, and our network is a local media.
“In addition, we are playing our part in rolling out the Federal Government’s new public health campaign across our assets – a cam- paign that will save lives and which is without question the most impor- tant initiative we have ever been involved in. We will continue to support this and any related initiatives as events unfold.”
At the local arm of French firm JCDecaux, the year 2020 started well. The group had finally worked through the integration with APN Outdoor which took up most of 2019. Then the coronavirus appeared.
“We did everything we could to retain or move clients rather than lose them, while doing everything we could to cut costs as a business through negotiating down our rent and all other expenditure,”
JCDecaux’s #OURSECONDCHANCE. And lock them down after lockdown.
says Steve O’Connor, JCDecaux’s ANZ CEO.
The company also put itself in the shoes of clients.
“We were all a bit lost and sud- denly cut off from colleagues at home,” says O’Connor. “We organ- ised and rolled out a Mark Ritson mini-MBA to engage and expand horizons.” The ADMA WFH Marketing Masterclass program was designed to provide JCDecaux’s team and client part- ners the opportunity to arm them- selves with the strategic marketing know-how required in the sud- denly challenging environment.
At home, like many of his col- leagues and clients, O’Connor faced a daily challenge -- jostling with his children as to who gets the room with the best WiFi. “I must admit I only sometimes won that argument.”
At the same time, he worked hard on a business strategy to balance short-, medium- and long-term strategies amidst all
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