Gawk acquires TOM billboards

Gawk Outdoor has taken over most of the billboards formerly owned by Total Outdoor Media. Photo: GAWK OUTDOOR/LINKEDIN

LEADING regional Victorian Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertiser Gawk Outdoor has signed a deal to take over the majority of billboards formerly owned by Total Outdoor Media (TOM).

The deal follows European OOH assets owner Wildstone acquiring all of TOM’s regional billboards in March.

Under the new arrangement, Gawk – which has offices in Geelong and Melbourne – now has an extra 39 static and seven digital billboards, which lifts its share of the regional Victorian market to nearly 80 percent.

Gawk Outdoor director Luke Course celebrated the deal in a post on Linked last week. “This deal puts the cherry on top of our regional Victorian coverage,” he wrote.

“TOM built some high-quality sites, and we couldn’t be more excited to add them to our arsenal.

“Huge congrats to Ged Hart and the TOM team, and to Wildstone on the acquisition.”

Gawk has also hired former TOM sales director Heidi Lawrie, who will work alongside Gawk agency sales director Tim Stevenson.

“Internally, they could yet be referred to as Hayden and Langer, but we better let those nicknames develop organically,” Mr Course wrote.