oOh! Media chief and founder Brendon Cook to exit outdoor advertiser

Founder and CEO Brendon Cook will step down after more than 30 years as a “pioneer” at the outdoor advertising company.

Brendon Cook

Brendon Cook has called time on his 30 year reign at oOh!media, the outdoor advertising group he founded, marking the end of an era as the industry’s longest-serving chief executive.

Mr Cook’s departure later this year was announced on Wednesday, alongside oOh!media’s warning that its recently upgraded annual underlying earnings will be towards the lower end of the range.

As the ad veteran approaches his 60th birthday this year, Mr Cook says it is time to step down from the business, which he described as “strong”, after more than three decades at the helm.

“I’ve been doing it for 31 years, and running a business is a seven day a week job. With two listings, private equity, building it from scratch, 40 acquisitions. I’ve got plenty left in me but I need to really make sure that I can help the business succeed,” Mr Cook told The Australian in an interview.

“I bleed orange so there’s no chance of me ever being involved in any competitor to this business, it was really about trying to help this business.”

oOh!media has traditional and digital billboards across more than 30,000 locations across Australia and New Zealand, and competes against French giant JCDecaux.

Chairman Tony Faure described Mr Cook as a “true pioneer” of outdoor advertising in Australia.

“Brendon had the foresight to recognise the growth potential of digital and has been a powerful advocate for the development of new outdoor environments to capitalise on the rapid growth in media consumption habits away from home. He also led the development of new ways to measure the true value of the out of home segment,” he said.

“He has successfully led oOh!’s diversification strategy to build a data-centric, scalable multiformat business across billboards, retail, office buildings, street furniture, rail, universities, cafes and airports which leads the Australian and New Zealand markets.”

Mr Faure also said the company is in “good shape and has a strong and established management team”.

Mr Cook, who owns roughly about 1.2m shares in oOh!media, plans to stay in his role until his replacement is found, and will then work with the board to “ensure an orderly and seamless transition to a new CEO”. After that, Mr Cook will take up a non-executive consulting role.

oOh!media said its 2019 underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation guidance, which was issued on December 3, will be towards the lower end of the $138m to $143m range, excluding integration costs and changes to accounting rules.

Mr Cook said “all media markets found December a little tougher than they were expected”, citing a shift in shopping behaviours and patterns towards the November cyber sales.

“It was a different shopping year, in terms of how people shopped and how retailer’s themselves took advantage of the BlackFriday’s and all sorts of promotions that they ran in November,” he said.

oOh!media will report its full-year results on February 24.

Its shares ended the trading session on the ASX down 6.7 per cent to $3.36 on Wednesday, valuing the company around $814m.