Here is a situation, you’re cruising on the roadway, seemingly concentrating on your driving, shooting some nostalgic hits pretty much clear. It will take some genuine interference to take your attention.  Out of nowhere, there it is, a huge, bold, bright billboard advertising a huge, delicious-looking cheese pizza with a crisp headline.

You suddenly recollect that you are starving. Next up you’re searching for a contact number, address, website… something! You truly want to get your hands on that pizza. 

People, that is the engaging and alluring force of a splendid billboard advertisement.

7 Creative Examples of Billboard Advertising Campaigns

Billboard advertisements are one of the most effective and highly used forms of marketing communication for brands While many billboard advertisements follow the conventional tactic of using bright colours and interesting ad copy, some brands choose to take their billboard advertisements to the next level.

Rest assured, billboards are going nowhere. They are still relevant, trusted by mega-corporations and medium-sized & large-sized businesses, and are getting increasingly creative.

We are sure you must have heard of McDonald’s latest interactive billboard promoting a steamy, hot cup of coffee.

Here, we will share with you 7 examples of brands that went above and beyond to capture the attention of potential customers via billboards

1. IKEA Billboard Advertisement

Imagine walking down your neighbourhood and you see this billboard advertisement that tells you the steps to reach the brand’s store. 

Now a fitness freak will think, oh that’s just a 20-minute walk away! And this is how Ikea played with the minds of the people. 

There were small billboards in the vicinity of the Ikea store that told the steps needed to reach their store. They were also promoting fitness in this, and thus walking and completing the steps of their customers

2. The Carlsberg Interactive ad

Billboards serving free beer. What more can one ask for at this point?

They had a perfect execution too, where one person could only have one pint and there was a guard there to make sure this was followed.

Carlsberg used this opportunity to show everyone how their beer tasted (except for minors, of course) and made their brand the first thing people will think of when they think of beer. 

People were lining up to get themselves a glass. If you love beer, why wouldn’t you, and some took it to social media to share this, and it went viral with about 3 million impressions on Twitter!

It also had an interesting tagline – “Probably the best poster in the world” 

Image source

3. BMW i13 Glowing Billboard Advertisement

This next creative example of a billboard advertising campaign was launched to showcase BMW’s first fully-electric premium model.

There were lights that glowed and highlighted the car at night and the lights were charged electrically, obviously.

The billboard’s blue backlight created a sense of suspense and excitement among the viewers.

Key parts of the car were separately illuminated to highlight the model and hi-tech eco-friendly features and electric inner workings, while a cutting-edge printing technique accentuates the contrast with the backlit skin.

The advertising also encouraged consumers to download a mobile app from the App Store, enabling them to take a virtual test drive in the BMW i3.

This certainly is one of the best billboard advertisements we have seen. While doing creative OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising like this can help you promote your brand, you may come across a few challenges regarding OOH advertising.

Read this blog to know the top 5 challenges of OOH advertising and their solution

4. McDonald’s and Burger King’s “Which one is closer” Billboard Advertisement

Every business has a competitor and brands do their best to beat their competitors and stand out from them.

One such business is McDonald’s, which has Burger King as its competitor. With this creative McDonald’s billboard advertisement, they seem to have found quite a creative way to stand out from their competition.

Mcdonald’s shows the distance to its closest shop as compared to that of Burger King’s closest store. Hence telling the consumer Mcdonald’s is more popular. 

We love the rivalry between these two fast food chains and the kind of advertisements they produce as a consequence of this rivalry. 

5. Creative Nose Hair Trimmer Advertising

Huge billboards are probably one of the best ways to catch people’s attention. But what if you combined guerilla marketing with it?

Well, this next billboard advertisement is a great example of combining billboard with guerilla marketing.

This creative (and quite amusing) billboard advertisement campaign was carried out by Panasonic in Indonesia. The billboards were placed on electric poles.

Electric pole wires were displayed as long nose hair dramatizing the importance of having a nose trimmer, and urging people to use their product. What a creative way to use the electric wires! 

Trimmers can be useful for all kinds of people, but it is something that kind of embarrasses people. This billboard does a good job of talking about it while making a joke about it. 

6. McDonald’s We are 24 Hours Open  

When we think of billboards, we think of large-size banners. What some of us tend to miss is that billboards can be digital too.

Digital billboards come under the DOOH advertising communication.

Take this digital billboard advertisement for McDonald’s for example. It shows the time and says “We’re open”

Leveraging on the fact that most restaurants are not open after 12 am, Mcdonald’s nails this billboard perfectly. This billboard would work wonders on a highway or expressway that would let drivers know at night that their store is open and they can rest for a while before continuing their journey.

7. The BIC Razor Grass Lawn Advertisement

This next billboard advertisement can be a take on the trending meme of “Tell me who you’re without telling me who you’re”

In this case, it would be,

“Tell me you’re a shaving brand without telling me you’re a shaving brand”

The BIC Razor ran a billboard advertising campaign in which they placed a plain, white coloured billboard poster with a giant razor in the middle of a grass lawn and cut the grass short promoting the “effectiveness” of the razor.

Billboards are probably the best places for inventive marketing campaigns

Despite the rise of digital marketing platforms today, brands still use billboards to create interesting and striking ads that get people talking!

Great Billboards don’t always follow the ‘the bigger the better philosophy. So, get creative, use outside elements, and aim to create a customer experience than just an advertisement.

Contact us if you want to do billboard advertising PAN India level and for more related blogs

Dial +91 990 247 8800 or email us at contact@gingermediagroup.com