Gawk Outdoor

Gawk Outdoor is the leading independent outdoor advertising business in regional Victoria. The company provides high-quality outdoor advertising to Victorian businesses – large and small.

Challenges

For business award success, Gawk needs to:

• Educate the judges about the complexities of growing an outdoor advertising business
• Differentiate itself from other competitors across all advertising and marketing media
• Raise brand awareness

Our approach

When Gawk decided to enter the B&T 30Under30 Award in the Entrepreneur category, rather than asking set questions Proof Communications established a conversation with Gawk’s co-Director James Course. Together they explored approaches to writing the award, identified and refined the content and formulated the narrative that would have the most impact on the judges reviewing the entries.

“Proof Communications added value to the process by articulating the key points and writing a clear and concise entry,” explains James. He particularly valued the collaborative approach that Proof Communications adopted. “The questions and answers that arose from our conversations allowed me to see some aspects of the business in a new way.”

Outcomes

The B&T 30Under30 – Entrepreneur award is highly sought after among up-and-coming marketers and advertisers.

Gawk wanted to develop greater brand recognition in the marketplace and among their peers, and winning this award would achieve this. The challenge was to educate the judges about the complexities of growing an outdoor advertising business – particularly in relation to other advertising and media organisations where growth can be gauged by turnover or number of employees. Gawk also needed to differentiate themselves by describing the innovative path they have followed to set the company up for success.

Gawk achieved the brand recognition they sought by winning the following awards:

• B&T 30under30 Awards – Entrepreneur
• Winner of the Grand Prix.

Winning these awards has put Gawk on the map and validated their business within the industry, which James believes contributed to his brother and co-Director Luke winning the VIC Rising Star Award at the Outdoor Media Association Awards.

Gawk’s win has raised awareness of the possibilities for creative advertising in regional areas – something James is passionate about. ‘There are basically three big players in the metro markets and we wanted to create something on a regional scale. When you look at other traditional media outlets in the regions, they tend to be tired operations. A key point of difference is that we are a young, fresh company in this space.’

There is also an educational aspect to it. ‘Historically, Victoria has had some pretty poor billboards, such as the old tobacco signs, which have never been refreshed, so people had discredited outdoor advertising as a potential option in this space. This has changed significantly since we’ve entered the market and developed our network. We’re educating people to relook at outdoor advertising for regional areas.’

Find out more about Gawk Outdoor at www.gawk.com.au.