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The World Out of Home Organization (WOO) has announced its first Annual Awards since 2019 at its Toronto Global Congress, held from May 25-27. This is WOO's first in-person Global Congress since pre-pandemic Dubai in 2019.
The awards were handed as follow:
Lifetime Achievement
The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to oOh!media co-founder and former CEO Brendon Cook. Cook built oOh! into Australia and New Zealand's leading Out of Home media company and a major player on the world stage. He is a former board member of WOO and lead two expert panels on programmatic OOH at Toronto 2022.
Cook, former WOO President, Antonio Vincenti of Pikasso and former Executive Director John Ellery were inducted as the inaugural Honorary Lifetime members of the World Out of Home Organization Fellowship.
Pikasso founder and CEO Antonio Vincenti is a former WOO President and served as Vice-President & board member for 14 consecutive years from 2008 to May 2022.
Leadership
There were joint winners of the 2022 Leadership Award: Broadsign President and CEO Burr Smith and Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of Australia's Outdoor Media Association (OMA.) Smith has helped build Montreal-based Broadsign into one of the world's leading OOH technology companies. Moldrich has provided 12 years of inspiring leadership for OMA including major breakthroughs in audience research and measurement.
Rising Star
Ricardo Queirós da Costa Bastos – Dream Media Portugal. At just 33 Ricardo is already the leader of the largest operator of static billboards, digital billboards and activation media and roadshow in Portugal. Highly commended in this category were Ciara Kennedy of VistarMedia and Annabel Mizen of Evolve.
WOO President Tom Goddard says: “Brendon Cook, Burr Smith and Charmaine Moldrich are three legends of the global OOH industry while Ricardo Queirós da Costa Bastos is surely on his way there.
"No-one has done more to turn OOH into a major, top of mind medium than Brendon Cook and we're delighted to honour him. Burr Smith and Charmaine Moldrich have led their organizations through a truly testing time for the industry with vision, maturity and optimism, three things that mark out great leaders. Ricardo will surely follow in their footsteps.
"We're incredibly fortunate to have great leaders at all levels in the OOH industry. It means we can look forward to an even brighter future."
Creative Awards - Classic and Digital
The Creative Awards Jury was chaired by Ian Heartfield, Chief Creative Officer of New Commercial Arts. NCA is WOO's creative ad agency and produced the global 'Our Second Chance' campaign in 2020.
Classic winner
1/ Should've Gone to Specsavers - The Agency (Specsavers in-house team), Talon Outdoor, MGOMD
Heartfield says: "Perfection. Highly disruptive, witty, brutally simple, and demonstrates how OOH can be the perfect medium for breathing new life into a long standing brand idea."
2/ Boss x Russell Athletic - Raff Advertising Management and OOH Tommy London - evolve OOH & Havas Media Germany/ client - Hugo Boss
3/ Wrapped Up - OUTFRONT STUDIOS – client Verity
Digital winner
1/ Naked eye 3D+ interactive experience - Dongfang Chuxiao Media Group
Heartfield says: "Simply breathtaking. A fantastic demonstration of the 3D capabilities of OOH. But not only that, the craft in these executions is truly exceptional, the technology in this medium has opened up a whole new area of creative specialism. Love it."
2/ Spirits on the Moove - OUTFRONT Media - OUTFRONT XLabs
3/ Saudi Live - SoundStorm - Saudi Tourism Authority direct via Grand Visual- PHD/ Plexus
Technical Innovation winner
This award is chosen by delegates on the second day of Congress.
1/ Naked eye 3D+ interactive experience - Dongfang Chuxiao Media Group
The other two innovations in this three way run off were:
- Holograms in street furniture developed by Clear Channel Spain for the Cupra Car launch
and
- blowUP media (The Netherlands) for NEO: The largest transparent LED screen of Western Europe
WOO Chief Marketing Officer Richard Saturley says: "Creativity is absolutely vital in today's crowded media world and is one of the key attributes of Out of Home. This year's Creative Awards show conclusively that it's alive and well in our medium with great ideas and amazing technology. Ian and the judges made brilliant choices from an exceptionally strong entry.
