There’s been plenty of movement for the local sign and display sector this month, with Gary Smith, former Starleaton director, joining Spicers’ Sign & Display division, Spandex Asia Pacific choosing Wayne Hood as its new Victorian and South Australia regional manager, and oOh! Media announcing a series of new appointments.
Gary Smith takes new role at Spicers
Gary Smith, former director of Starleaton and sales manager at Budde International, took on his new role at Spicers’ growing Sign & Display division within weeks of leaving fellow digital wide format supplier, Starleaton.
For Smith, the new appointment represents an opportunity to help leverage Spicers’ emerging standing in the national wide format sector as it works to diversify its product offering.
“They want to move into the sign and display business,” says Smith, who is based in Sydney with the new role. “They’ve got the paper background and they’re huge in certain areas, but as the digital revolution marches forward, wide format is a huge part of that.
“When I left Starleaton, I had a few offers, but Spicers was the logical step. They needed some expertise in the sign, screen and display market, particularly for the Sydney operation. They’ve got good a good product range and brand, and they can see they need to be player in this marketplace,” he says.
New addition for Spandex
Last month, Spandex Asia Pacific announced it had appointed Wayne Hood (pictured) as its new Victoria and South Australia regional manager.
Prior to the appointment, Hood – originally from South Africa – had made a name for himself in the local market with various sales and management within the Australian printing industry over the past 23 years.
Hood’s career has been shaped by a desire and passion to be prepared with the best industry knowledge to assist his employer and clients. He has successfully attended internal and external training sessions that benefited his career and held positions in management, sales, production and human resources.
He has worked across various industries including manufacturing, service and consulting, and along with his experience across HR management, sales and sales management, costing, estimating, planning and production can communicate effectively across all levels within a business.
oOh! Media on the move with new appointments and divisions
Trans-Tasman outdoor media player, oOh! Media has named Peter Whitehead (pictured left) as its new national sales director while also appointing Phil Eastwood (pictured right), formerly of rival APN Outdoor, as its new national commercial director of sales.
oOh! CEO, Brendon Cook said with the integration of EYE Corp now complete and the recent addition of exciting new products including some of the most advanced digital offerings, oOh! was now strongly placed to attack the market share of other mediums.
“Peter and Phil will be joining John O’Neill to give oOh! one of the strongest sales leadership teams in media,” Cook says. “We are confident that through our market leadership, coupled with our great team of sales professionals and our unique capability to connect advertisers with growing audiences while they are away-from-home, we will continue to drive the overall growth of the industry.”
Whitehead’s most recent position was the Commercial Director Sales - Fly, where he was responsible for the sales performance of oOh!’s airport media assets. Prior to working in the sector, he spent five years as Southern Cross Austereo’s Melbourne Sales Director.
Eastwood moves across from APN Outdoor where he spent the past three three years as National Sales Director. Mr Eastwood was also the Managing Director of Glue Media, an outdoor advertising company specialising in developing and building large and small format billboards in Australia and New Zealand.
They will be supported by state sales teams which are headed up by Sean Rigby (NSW), Tim Murphy (Victoria), Peter Reynolds (Queensland), Nathan Robertson (South Australia) and Mark Treasure (Western Australia), and the direct sales team headed up by Kevin Price.
Across the pond, oOh! Media sets up a new production team in New Zealand as part of expansion plans, with Natalie Patterson appointed as the company’s first production manager in New Zealand, executing and delivering innovative campaigns that extend beyond the advertising panel and supporting the entire production requirements across all Fly, Retail and Study campaigns.