The best billboard ads are made to make a big impact, stopping passersby in their tracks. Whether it's through clever copy, dynamic visuals or guerrilla marketing tactics, these larger-than-life ads are a diverse masterclass in captivating audiences with simple, standout design.
While in today's digital age, some of the best adverts are cropping up across social media, the art form of billboard advertising is still just as relevant. Often inspired by the best print ads of previous decades, these megatlithic marketing tools are a beacon of elite advertising, shaping branding in and out of the home.
01. Tesco
UK supermarket Tesco received an outpouring of praise for its series of logo-less billboards, proving that sometimes produce speaks louder than words. Created by advertising agency BBH London, Tesco's ICONS campaign replaces the letters of its wordmark with various produce items, creating a playful puzzle for passersby to solve.
Creating a completely logo free billboard might seem like the cardinal sin of advertising, but Tesco proved it's brand recognition is iconic enough to still be recognisable.
"You need to have icon status to be able to play with your logo with such confidence," BBH's deputy executive creative director Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes says. "We at BBH are lucky enough to have one of the most iconic brands out there, Tesco, and to work with a team which is willing to throw away the rule book which dictates how it's used," he adds.
02. Specsavers' deliberate fail
To celebrate 20 years of the optician store's iconic slogan, in 2022 Specsavers launched a guerrilla-style marketing campaign, the fresh format proving it to have stood the test of time and remaining as clever and silly as ever.
“They have been effective in using humour to continue the running gag to display a paired back and distinctive billboard poster plastered incorrectly over frames on the sides of buildings, over pipes, ladders etc,” says Ciara Stonley, a creative at agency syn.. “The posters feature an incredibly minimal design, using only one colour other than white, the logo, and one line of text to capture the viewer’s attention."
01. British Airways
In a perfect example of a 'less is more' approach, these British Airways billboards caught people's eyes for their simple yet striking appeal. Hopping on the logo ditching trend, the brand created 11 ingenious ads starring passengers staring out of BA plane windows, with only a flash of its iconic logo peeking through.
Despite their cryptic design, the playful ads are unmistakably on brand, capturing the spirit of adventure. "This campaign is paving the way for a new direction in recognition branding,” says designer Mike Roberts. “No logo, no strapline, just a slight visual clue of the brand and a window into the travel experience.”
04. The Economist's Lightbulb
The 2005 3D billboard ad, crafted by BBDO, used motion sensor technology to light up a giant light bulb as people walked past. The highly shareable experience subsequently gained significant exposure across socials.
“It's an original take on the lightbulb idea concept that has been used numerous times before, but yet this campaign was more original and stood out on the billboards with the element of interactivity," says designer Mathew John. "The bold use of colour, clean design and 3D stand out of the lightbulb made it much more noticeable than the average busy adverts of the time.”
05. Go Compare self-defaces
Created by agency Dare, for insurance comparison site GoCompare, the agency jumped on the public’s dislike of the brand’s curly-moustache opera singer character, Gio Compario with this self-defaced campaign.
The campaign staged a great example of an "accidental fail" campaign, says Laura Jordan Bambach, which had the nation laughing.
06. Twister
The sequel to the 1996 film came with an incredible billboard we were a bit obsessed with. Warner Bros was responsible for installing this billboard in Paris – but it looks like the twister got to it shortly afterwards as it lies upside down in a pile of devastation.
This pulls attention from passers-by and makes a nice photo opportunity, which is perfect for some coverage on socials, too. "This is a 'pay close attention' to this perfection type of marketing moment," someone said on X. And we agree.
07. Nasa 3D billboard
Nasa leapt on the latest technology when creating this 3D billboard, and it's an excellent example of the craft. It's an incredible spectacle that includes six minutes of art, which takes a viewer on a journey through the journey of space exploration.
It's installed outside of the Kennedy Space Center, has a display screen that's 30 feet in height and each frame consists of 6.1 million pixels. Wow. It is one of the longest anamorphic experiences ever made, which is quite a feat for studio Blunt Action, which worked in collaboration with SNA Displays.
We dubbed it an "ingenious blend of art and technology" when we covered it in our article Nasa's 3D billboard is out of this world.
08. Gymshark shoplift campaign
This ingenious billboard from the athletic apparel brand Gymshark is a perfect example of interactive marketing mixed with clever, eye-catching copy. The simple design features exclusive clothing pieces pinned to the billboard. The provocative copy seemingly invites passers-by to pluck items off the board, effectively encouraging consumers to 'shoplift' from the billboard.
Once the times were all removed from the billboard a new message was revealed that read: 'Shop lift-ing essentials – up to 60% off everything'. While it might seem like a rather dramatic ad for a simple sale promo, the clever stunt got creatives talking, opening up the interactive possibilities of billboard advertising.
09. Surreal cereal
When it comes to marketing the humble cereal box, it can be pretty hard to reinvent the wheel. With this in mind, breakfast brand Surreal created a selection of hilariously bad billboard ads to poke fun at the post-Christmas fitness fad.
With laughably primitive design, basic WordArt and typos galore, the playful brand commits almost every design crime under the sun, but somehow it works. While the billboards might seem traffic-stopping for all the wrong reasons, Surreal's rebellious campaign proves that breaking the rules can be a clever way to give your brand a boost of refreshing personality.
10. Dracula
In this advert for the BBC's adaptation of Dracula, bloody stakes stick out from this billboard during the day. But at night, a light on the side of the billboard means that the stakes form a haunting shadow of Dracula himself. It's certainly a clever way to get people's attention.
11. KFC
No, this isn't a billboard for Ikea, we promise. But it is a clever marketing tactic from fast food outlet KFC. The billboard was designed to resemble the furniture giant's logo as where the restaurant is located is know as "where the Ikea is", and in a fun interaction on Twitter it seems Ikea were equally as amused with this great billboard advertising as we were.
12. Corona
This billboard ad for beer brand Corona makes the most of its surroundings, using nature to do the hard work. Created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, the ad celebrates Corona's 100% natural campaign, using the sunlight to cast a shadow of a beer bottle with the message "made from the natural world".
It's a billboard ad that embraces simplicity, with the bright yellow wall and Corona label acting as clear signifiers of the brand's identity. Coming to life during the evening golden hour, it's transformed into a strong multidimensional ad that's innovative and effortlessly stylish.
13. Rust
This billboard by Heimat transformed over time to show off Tyrolit's Iceline knife range's USP. Initially, passers-by were faced with a mysterious sheet of metal, bearing only the brand's logo. In a matter of a few weeks, the surface became covered with rust, leaving only the shape of a knife untarnished. The tagline: Flawless. Forever. drove home the message.
14. Wave of Waste
To mark World Oceans day in 2018, Corona worked with Wieden + Kennedy on this sobering billboard advertising campaign. Artist Andy Billett created a 3D 'wave' from plastic waste collected in the UK, which combined with an image of Chris Hemsworth surfing to emphasise the volume of plastic ending up in our oceans. The public was encouraged to drop off their own waste at the site. Similar campaigns were run in Melbourne, Lima, Santiago, Bogota and Santo Domingo.
15. Who is America?
Sacha Baron Cohen's TV series, Who is America?, was an exercise in getting assorted American politicians to humiliate themselves on camera, with hit-and-miss results. But it's hard to fault this Belgian campaign to get people viewing on BeTV; Brussels agency Happiness built ugly breeze block walls in front of Mexican restaurants, complete with razor wire, and used them as billboards to advertise the show. Strong stuff.
16. Follow the Arches
It takes a lot of chutzpah to mess with a logo, but that's what Toronto agency Cossette, along with Spencer & Jordan, did for this McDonald's campaign. For the award-winning Follow the Arches campaign, the team deconstructed the iconic golden arches and transformed them into minimal directional billboards to help steer drivers to the nearest branch of McDonald's.
17. Reebok ZPump 2.0
Swedish agency Animal came up with an impressive way of drumming up publicity for Reebok's new running shoes: it set up an outdoor billboard in central Stockholm, challenging people to a human speed test. Anyone who ran past the billboard faster than 17 km/h unlocked a brand new pair of ZPump 2.0 shoes.
The billboard used a speed camera developed specifically for this campaign, which used realtime object recognition and motion detection to identify runner's movements and calculate their pace, to great effect.
18. Coca-Cola: The Sign
This billboard advertising campaign from Publicis Italia encouraged Coca-Cola drinkers to recycle their empty bottles. The agency cleverly adapted Cola's iconic ribbon design to literally point passers-by to the nearest recycling bin. There was some controversy surrounding the ads, however, with critics commenting that Coca-Cola was doing too little to offset the massive environmental impact of its products.
19. AIR-INK
Launched via a successful Kickstarter campaign from Graviky Labs, AIR-INK is an innovative ink made from air pollution. A device captures particles of black soot from car exhaust fumes and chimney smoke, which is then processed and transformed into safe, top-quality ink.
To promote the project, the team roped in illustrator Kristopher Ho to paint a huge billboard for London's Shaftesbury Avenue, effectively 'recycling' the pollution into artwork. To make the scale of the undertaking clear, and intrigue passers-by, the billboard has a simple slogan: 'This art is painted with air pollution'.
20. McDrive
Taking advantage of the fact that in its client, McDonald's, operates a lot more drive-through restaurants in France (known as McDrives over there, because France) than its main competitor, Burger King, TBWA\Paris set up this cheeky pair of billboards near Brioude in the Haute-Loire. The ludicrously tall one gives directions to the nearest Burger King drive-through, 258km away, while the little one points drivers to a much, much closer McDrive. Formidable!
21. The Human Billboard
When extreme right-wing party Le Front National won the first round of the 2017 French presidential election, the country saw a rise in racist rhetoric. Leo Burnett France and Le CRAN (Le Conseil Representatif des Associations Noires) used a different type of billboard to remind the French people the lasting damage racist language can have.
Racist insults were collected via social media, and tattooed onto the body of a man to turn him into a 'human billboard'. The man then walked around Paris distributing leaflets explaining the campaign and encouraging people to join the conversation.
22. Unitech
Developed by the team at advertising agency JWT, New Delhi, this Unitech billboard takes advertising to new heights. Here, hundreds of dummy matchboxes were produced and and stuck together in these Lego-like high-rise structures promoting new villas gated community at Karma Lakelands in India.
23. IBM
As part of IBM's Smarter Cities initiative, ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Group (now Ogilvy) designed "ads with a purpose", adding a curve to the billboard to create a rain shelter, bench and even a convenient ramp while promoting the technology brand – because "if cities were smarter, life in cities would be better".
The billboards seamlessly blend modern design with functionality to help people while they remind them who is behind the act of generosity – it's a clever way to sell.
24. Häagen-Dazs
Ice cream brand Häagen Dazs wasn't afraid to embrace a minimalist approach when it came to this billboard campaign. Cleverly showcasing the irresistibility of its products, each design features an empty stick subtly flashing the brand's logo – a messy contrast that subverts Häagen-Dazs' typical indulgent branding.
“We didn’t need to show the product because the craving you get from looking at it says it all,” says Alex Grieve, global chief creative officer at BBH. "This work is a celebration of what makes Häagen-Dazs iconic: unmatched product, crafted with care and savoured to the last bite,” adds Häagen-Dazs' global head, Priscilla Zee.
25. Leica
A picture speaks 1,000 words, or in this case 12x optical zoom. These billboards designed by the team at Advico Young & Rubicam in Switzerland display exactly how simplicity can often be the most creative and impactful form of design. Each billboard is a zoomed in image (presumably 12X and taken by a Leica V-Lux 1 camera) of the object behind it, displaying the camera's superior zoom quality that doesn't miss a detail.
26. Miele vacuum cleaner
In order to promote the power of the Miele S8 monster suction vacuum cleaner, Bratislava-based adverting agency Mayer McCann Erickson placed this brilliant billboard design over a well-known tunnel. The agency then filmed traffic over a period of time, resulting in this video that gives the impression of various vehicles being sucked into the vacuum hose.
27. Koleston Naturals: Change
Advertising agency Leo Burnett like incorporating the sun into their awesome designs, including this one for hair colourant Koleston Naturals. The innovative design features a woman's hair die-cut in the billboard to capture the variations of Koleston Naturals' colours through the different phases of the day and night. The effect the sun has on this design is just brilliant, with the model's hair colour changing from blonde to black in just a few hours.
28. Bleeding billboard
The concept for this powerful billboard design came from New Zealand-based creative agency Colenso BBDO. The team was approached by South Auckland local government bodies with a brief to create a design that would lower the number of fatal accidents on the road.
Noticing that accidents had increased during a particularly wet Easter, the road safety team put up this billboard that 'bleeds' when it rains. The message? 'Rain changes everything. Drive to the conditions.' If that harrowing image doesn't make people slow down, we don't know what will.
29. Panasonic nose hair trimmer
We love this comedic design by Saatchi & Saatchi Indonesia for Panasonic's nose hair trimmer. The billboards were built around wires and poles to amusingly advertise the need for the device and showcase its safety cutting system. It's a fun and innovative idea.
30. Colorado State Patrol
'Tailgating isn't worth it. Give Trucks room. It's the law.' That's the message that features on this brilliantly designed billboard by French-American advertising agency Amélie Company for the Colorado State Patrol. It's simple, keep your distance or end up looking like the billboard. This is one design that will certainly grab the attention of drivers. Although let's hope the campaign doesn't keep their eyes off the road for too long...
31. Science World
Advertising agency Rethink, Canada teamed up with the Science World Museum to create a series of brilliant billboards dedicated to promoting science in Vancouver. The Rethink team glued 9,000 glass diamonds to a billboard to promote Science World's Treasure exhibit, and to demonstrate that, compared to many other gems, diamonds aren't all that rare.
Other brilliant designs include a board covered in pure gold and a stick man made from 9,000 pencils.
32. The Day After Tomorrow
In order to promote Roland Emmerich's 2004 global-warming disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow to Indian audiences, ad agency Contract submerged a billboard in the sea not far from Mumbai. The idea was to mimic the idea of Manhattan being overwhelmed by water, so the team also placed a replica of the Empire State building further out to sea.
Leaving just the details of the film's release and venue, the marketing campaign attracted the attention of many a passer-by.
33. Smart: Little billboard
This pocket-sized design proves that when you have a good idea, size really doesn't matter. In keeping with Smart car's low impact on the environment, instead of using big billboards that pollute the environment, advertising agency BBDO, Toronto created a series of scaled down versions.
The miniature street advertising boards were placed in various locations around Toronto, all of them celebrating the beauty of being small.
34. Levi's
Founded back in the mid 1800s, Levi Strauss and Co has since become known worldwide for its Levi brand of denim jeans. With such a recongiseable brand and product, a simple but clever design was all that was needed for this billboard.
Here, Levi's lets its jeans do the talking, featuring a section of a giant pair of 501s, unbuttoned to reveal not only the the infamous numbers, but realistic detailing in the denim, stitching, buttons and rivets.
35. Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka's long-running advertising campaign is one of the most successful consumer products campaigns in the history of advertising. Known for it creative design, the company outdid itself back in 2000 when it created this eye-catching billboard.
After teaming up with fellow Swedish global brand IKEA, the company transformed a billboard in Manhattan into a stylish, but cramped, New York City apartment turned on its side – and shaped like an Absolut bottle. Genius.
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