Welcome to oOh Chris!
Your newly created role as Group Director Sales consolidates Agency and DBI into one single leadership structure. What benefits do you anticipate from this approach?
I’m a big believer in making things simple. Uniting our sales team into one has lots of benefits. While there are nuances between direct clients and agency holding companies, the basic principles of sales remain the same. We all service clients, represent the same organisation, and provide solutions across the same suite of assets.
Each person plays a crucial role in driving the organisation’s objectives. Coming together as one team breaks down silos, allowing us to collaborate and share best practice. Unified teams and communication avoid duplication and allow us to learn from each other.
Transitioning into the Out of Home industry, what motivated you to take on this new challenge?
Over the past year, I’ve given considerable thought to my next role. Drawing inspiration from a good friend and mentor of mine (Afdhel Aziz), who talks about finding one’s own GPS as a tool for determining your purpose and direction, aligning with my GPS was paramount in my search for an organisation to work with.
The G represents what you are good at. Those around me say I’m good at motivating, inspiring and bringing people together to focus on a common goal.
The P is what are you passionate about. I love media, advertising, and our industry. I find immense joy in generating ideas and strategies to help businesses grow.
Lastly, the S stands for service – who you want to serve, work with and the type of people you wish to spend your time with. Having had the privilege of working with most of the industry in my former role, I gained valuable insights into the industry. The culture and team at oOh!, and my new role perfectly aligns with my GPS and I’m incredibly happy to have been given this opportunity.
From UnLtd to oOh!, you’ve entered both organisations at a pivotal time of growth. What key principles did you implement to drive success, and how to plan to apply similar approaches in this new role?
Great question for me on day nine! Right now, I am trying to learn as much as possible from all the incredible minds across oOh! and getting to know everybody. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by everyone and I’m grateful in their openness in sharing and welcoming me. I have a lot to learn, and I’m keen to absorb as much information and detail as possible.
Successful teams embody a few key principles. Firstly, there’s a strong emphasis on awareness of and connection to the organisation’s overall goals. Understanding these goals and recognising everyone’s role in achieving them lays a solid foundation for success.
Secondly, having a clear plan to reach those goals is essential. Once the overarching objectives are established, developing a detailed plan ensures focus and helps to avoid distraction which is super important in a business as big and diverse as oOh!
Thirdly, collaboration is vital. How do we best work together across the business to help deliver our own goals and in turn meet the organisations goals? This requires an understanding of each department’s function and having empathy for the challenges we all face, and sometimes compromising for the greater good.
My final piece of the puzzle is – enjoy what you are doing. We spend most of our lives at work so it’s important to ensure that we have fun, celebrate wins and achievements and be kind and respectful to each other. Lots of tactical things go into the above but they are my core focus areas.
In your first few weeks, you’ve jumped straight into client sessions – have you noticed any recurring trends or challenges that clients are facing?
It’s great to have the opportunity to engage with both our team and clients so early in my tenure, allowing me to learn about our exciting roadmap for 2024.
It’s evident the current climate poses significant challenges for most clients, which often exacerbate their existing issues. The primary challenges revolve around how to stand out in a cluttered market and how to deal with an increasingly fragmented marketplace. Additionally, many clients face heightened pressure to justify every dollar of spend.
These challenges present fantastic opportunities for us and the Out of Home industry. We are one of the few media platforms capable of attracting audiences at scale, and over short periods of time. We have so many innovative and creative ways for brands to be unmissable, including our Out of Home creative team, POLY. Adding more accountability and measurement through our partnerships with Flybuys and Westpac Data X and our transition to MOVE 2.0 later this year, is going to add even more impact for our clients. It’s a very exciting time to be in Out of Home!
What are your predictions or expectations for the Out of Home industry in 2024?
Continued growth, more innovation, more accountability, and lots of fun for all who are a part of that journey.
