The best billboard ad does not just sell your product – it stops people midway, makes them look twice and sometimes makes them put out their phone to share it instantly. All across the world, different brands and their agencies have been using outdoor advertising in order to create work that is genuinely impossible to ignore. Here are some billboard advertising examples that prove that the format is not just alive, it’s thriving.
What Makes a Great Billboard Ad?
A brilliant billboard has one job, it is to communicate something memorable in mere seconds. There is no skip button, no scrolling past it. Just a passerby, a message and whatever time it takes to walk or drive past.
The best outdoor ads share one comment trait – they are visual first. The tagline does the heavy lifting with a very few words. The best ones use the outdoor billboard environment itself as part of the idea.
The Best Billboard Advertising Examples
Here are some of the most impactful OOH billboard advertising examples from top brands & creative agencies that have made an impact globally.
Canva: Creative Chaos on the Street
Canva began one of the most talked about OOH campaigns in recent memory around London’s Waterloo station. They worked with Stink Studios to display eye-catching static billboards leaning into everyday frustrations of design work like mixed aspect ratios, conflicting feedback and reformatted files.
Their taglines were shareable, relatable and perfectly placed. The creative work proved that the print ads, when done right, can compete with any digital format or other exceptional billboard ad campaigns. They were impossible to miss, instantly understood by others and deeply resonant with anyone who has worked in creative.
KitKat: “Have a Break” Wins the Outdoor Grand Prix
Saatchi and Saatchi have long-shaped KitKat’s outdoor identity, but it was VML Czechia’s “Phone Break” billboard campaign that became one of the most-awarded OOH ads of the recent years and one of the standout billboard examples.
Replacing smart phones with KitKat bars in certain scenes where people habitually reach out for their devices struck a chord with the audience. The campaign ran across multiple OOH screens including subway stations as well as high-traffic outdoor billboard placements. It was instantly recognizable.
It won the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes and defined what an OOH ad can do when a great concept and format align together.
British Airways: Reflections
British Airways has consistently proven to produce very eye-catching large-format outdoor advertising that uses the medium intelligently. One such billboard ad example is their Reflections campaign that turned the window seat view into a canvas.
The brand’s logo subtly reflected in the aircraft window imagery across premium OOH ad placements looked simple and elegant.
The billboard featuring the brand without shouting it is what caught on with the audience. It was a reminder that restraint in OOH creative can be more impactful than spectacle and that the right creative agency partnership can transform a format into something that is genuinely impossible to ignore.
IKEA: Using the Environment as the Idea
IKEA and its creative team has consistently been producing cheeky creative billboard ads that make the surrounding environment a part of their messaging. They produced a very well-documented campaign by the Brighton store, which was launched by Mother London.
It used only a single image in order to lean directly into the city’s famous bird situation. These types of ads were absolutely impossible to miss and struck a chord with the audience.
Simple, product-relevant insight delivered with wit – that’s the IKEA approach to OOH activation done right.
UNICEF Finland: DOOH That Made a Real Difference
Unicef Finland launched one of the most massively powerful DOOH campaigns in recent memory & they did this by streaming real-time air raid alerts directly from Ukraine onto digital OOH screens that ran across Helsinki. Therefore, whenever a siren sounded in any six Ukrainian cities, it appeared instantly on screens across Helsinki.
Brands like Ocean Outdoor and other major operators also joined the effort at no cost and the campaign ultimately transformed digital billboards into a live connection between Finnish audiences and a distant conflict.
It was a landmark example of what digital out-of-home billboard design can do at the most urgent times by pulling real-time data. DOOH ads demand attention & offer something genuinely impactful.
KFC: The Hockey Smile
When talking about billboard examples, you cannot miss KFC Canada. They gave their brand symbol “Colonel” a hockey player’s grin, removing his two front teeth using hockey tape and placing the image everywhere fans looked, be it billboard ad placements, rink boards, digital screen activations, jumbotrons, etc.
The idea was very simple and quite cheeky. The colonel had the unmistakable gap-toothed grin of a hockey player mid-season. It ran as an advertising campaign that tried to bridge the gap between branded content and fan culture quite authentically.
A single visual idea effortlessly carried the entire innovative, powerful billboard campaign because the insight was tight & the execution was flawless.
Conclusion
The best billboard advertising examples that are stated above clearly show that great OOH is not about spending more money. It is about thinking harder.
The brands that win outdoors are the ones that transform their spaces into stories. At Selvel One, we believe in the same thing and with years of experience in the OOH landscape & a growing digital out-of-home portfolio, we have helped brands create impactful billboard campaigns that work effectively. Contact us today to know more creative billboard advertising.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly makes a billboard advertisement effective?
To make a billboard advertisement effective, you need a strong visual, a very clear message, and a practical placement that reaches the right audience at the right time. If you follow these three fundamentals, then you’re on the right path to achieving effective billboards ads.
What is the primary difference between OOH and DOOH billboard advertising?
In short, it can be said that OOH includes all outdoor formats, including static, whereas DoOH specifically refers to digital screen placements that tend to allow dynamic, real-time data-triggered creatives.
Which billboard advertising campaigns have won at the Cannes Lions?
KitKat’s “Phone Break” clever billboard campaign had once won the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes Lions – among many other ingenious creative OOH campaigns that were recognized at the festival due to their creative ideas.