Page 22 - AdNews Magazine Jan-Feb 2021

The Profile
The Australian father of OOH
Brendon Cook has been at the forefront of the outdoor advertising industry for decades. As he steps back from the business he built at oOh!media, AdNews sits down with him to reflect on his 40-year-plus career.
WORDS BY
PAIGE MURPHY
Few people can call themselves pioneers in their field but for Brendon Cook, the outgo- ing CEO and managing director of oOh!media, the local outdoor advertising industry wouldn’t be where it is today without him.
When it comes to transformation, Cook has been pioneering change in out-of-home (OOH) for four decades. A founding member of the industry body, the Outdoor Media Association, he was instrumental in developing the MOVE (Measurement of Outdoor Visibility and Exposure) project, a system that allowed for improved accuracy in reporting measurable out- comes to clients using OOH media.
He is also the international vice-president of global OOH industry body, Federation European Publicite Exterieur (FEPE). Cook is the first Australian to sit on the board in the organisa- tion’s 50-year history.
Dubbed the “father” of OOH in Australia by one AdNews reader following the announce- ment of his departure at the start of 2020, Cook has made a significant mark in the indus- try during the course of his stellar career. Today, the business he founded in 1989,
oOh!media, has grown to be a diversified media business worth $649 million with more than 37,000 digital and static asset locations.
It all began in July 1979 when Cook was six months out of high school and on the hunt for his first job. The job ad read: 25-year-old male with experience. At 19 years old with no expe- rience, Cook applied for the role knowing that he at least met the gender requirement.
“Imagine writing that job ad today — you would be sued,” Cook recalls to AdNews.
“Back then out-of-home was a very different medium to today and obviously the media world was a very different world. Colour TV reigned supreme, newspa-