James Course is just like you. A hard working Aussie who was looking to make a name for himself. Now, with the help of his brother Luke, he owns the most dominant regional billboard specialist in the country.
When the Course brothers founded Gawk in 2018, regional out of home had a scale problem. It was underappreciated by the market but it proved a golden opportunity for the Course brothers. So the lads put their heads together and came up with a strategic plan on making regional Victoria theirs.
The boys didn’t know it yet but soon enough they would hold the out of home keys to regional Australia, which is now home to nearly 10 million Aussies, making up 36 per cent of the country’s total population.
“We knew the stats, that NSW and QLD both had over 1,500 billboard assets in the regions. However, regional Victoria had under 250 – it was the underappreciated market,” Course, director of Gawk Outdoor told B&T.
“The reality was, nobody had poured over it, or built the relationships which mattered. We have always had the philosophy, don’t give up after the first no, and continue to show up where others won’t.
So, what began as two blokes and a red-hot opportunity, quickly led to Gawk becoming the undisputed heavyweight in regional billboards all across the nation, boasting over 80 per cent market share in regional Victoria. Gawk’s expertise and continual efforts of adding value to the market allowed it to grow its inventory by 267 per cent in two years.
Not to mention Course also picked up B&T’s 30 Under 30 Grand Prix award thanks to these larger than life ambitions.
But its dominance has since oozed out of Victoria, expanding into regional South Australia. Gawk already claims a massive 70 per cent market share in the state.
With those states now monopolised by the best of the best, Gawk now wants to become the undisputed regional specialist of New South Wales, and build on its already dominant 30 per cent market share it holds in the state.
In a bid to well and truly claim its belt, Gawk has begun a tenacious state-wide takeover, and plans to operate 17 large format digital sites by the end of March—double the digital inventory of any other out of home provider in regional NSW. If Sydney agencies already haven’t, they are going to quickly discover who the dominant force of regional billboards are.
“The market is getting used to seeing how quickly we do things—we go balls to the wall,” explained Course.
“We have shown our clear intent to dominate regional NSW with digital, it is going to be a fun few years leaving others in our wake.”
The expansion represents a strategic shift for the regional specialist, which now competes on digital scale rather than static inventory in NSW.
But none of this would be possible without the team at Gawk Outdoor. Gawk has evolved “from a rag tag group of people, to be the highest performing regional traditional media business in Australia (in our opinion). We now have a team of 42, many of which have been poached from a range of other traditional media companies, with a broad range of skills and experience,” said Course.
And now Gawk has positioned leadership across both direct and agency sales channels to fool proof the NSW expansion.
For example, Sam Brown leads direct sales from the company’s Erina office, Alex Anthony (recently appointed group agency sales director of NSW and QLD) leads agency sales from Sydney and Tim Stevenson as the group agency sales director of VIC and SA.
“We’ve got the team in place. The inventory’s going in the ground. We’re not talking about plans, we’re executing,” added Course.
The opportunity continues growing
Regional Australia is on track to be home to 11 million people by 2032, or 40 per cent of the overall population. Gawk is also seeing huge contingents in the consideration phase, where 40 per cent of people living in the city are also considering a tree change, data from the Regional Australia Institute reveals.
To cut through an area where more than a third of regional household incomes are more than $100 thousand, Gawk’s skills and knowledge need to be utilised.
Gawk doesn’t underestimate the power of regional Australia. A well executed NSW rollout plan, resulting in 17 digitals in the ground by the end of march represents the beginning of Gawk’s NSW ambitions. The regional OOH authoritarian is also on track to reach 50 digital panels across regional NSW within three years.
“Regional digital at scale didn’t exist before. Now it does,” said Course.
“Agencies briefing regional NSW campaigns need to ask themselves: are we including the dominant digital OOH provider? Or are we still treating regional as an afterthought?” he added.
It’s easy enough to now see the opportunity, SMI data shows the strong uplift across the OOH segment across Australia, the big players have laserlight focus on the cap cities, and delivering advertising opportunities to reach those audiences, while any archival regional sites have been left to slowly deteriorate. Regional OOH just needed the love, attention and passion poured into it that it deserves. We haven’t seen anyone willing to champion this growing audience, in the growing OOH segment, to help agencies maximise their media spends.
Don’t get left behind, piggy back off the specialists that flaunt a dominant network in Victoria and South Australia, and the soon to be dominant NSW player.
For Gawk, “it’s now about providing all the good parts of regional TV, Print & Radio organisations (community orientation, local teams, regional knowledge) but, within a growth segment,” concluded Course.
“We are excited to watch this sector flourish, and, we are particularly excited to keep every dollar we can on Australian shores (and in regional areas), rather than flowing to those notoriously dodgy tax payers (big digital companies).
“Regional is what we do, and all we do”.
