Looking back at the past year, it’s clear that out-of-home (OOH) advertisements have made a strong comeback in 2022, with innovative digital billboards and traditional posters brightening up the post-pandemic world.
The OOH advertising sector has had a bumpy couple of years. Spend dipped dramatically in 2020 when Covid 19 first took the world by storm and exposure to out-of-home advertising fell off the proverbial cliff.
Since then, the sector has bounced back, with £901 million spent on OOH advertising in 2021. While this remains some way below the £1.3 billion that was spent in 2019, further growth of 31.5% is forecast for 2022, taking the 2022 OOH ad spend by the end of this year to £1.18 billion – almost business as usual.
And it’s been a fantastically creative year, with agencies looking for increasingly creative, attention-grabbing ways to reach audiences who are busy going about their daily business. Advertisers must work hard to create unique, attention-grabbing and sometimes provocative campaigns to ensure they are noticed among all the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life.
Here are nine of the best OOH advertising campaigns released this year.
9 – Elton John AIDS Foundation LGBT-QR Codes
Making the cut in ninth place is The Elton John AIDS Foundation’s OOH fundraising campaign.
Back in June an instantly recognisable image of Sir Elton John was transformed into an LGBT-QR Code – a new fundraising technology that turns ‘functional monochrome QR codes’ into picture-like design icons.
The digital-out-of-home (DOOH) campaign, made in collaboration with OOH media company Clear Channel UK, and creative agency Ogilvy, debuted alongside Pride march routes in European cities throughout the summer.
Once members of the public scanned the image, the technology took users to a donation page for the AIDS charity.
8 – Quorn OOH stunt asked Boris Johnson’s No. 10 to stop telling ‘porkies’
Coming in at eighth is Quorn’s OOH van placement outside 10 Downing Street that poked fun at the now ex-prime minister, Boris Johnson.
A bright orange sandwich van was spotted outside number 10 bossing a ‘no more porkies’ sign, with a delivery man also dropping off a pork-free ham sandwich for Johnson’s goodbye lunch.
The stunt from the meat substitute brand poked fun at the lengthy list of scandals faced by the ex-Conservative Party leader in a provocative OOH campaign led by Taylor Herring and supported by Ponderosa across the brand’s social media accounts.
7 – Women’s Aid’s ‘He’s Coming Home’ World Cup domestic abuse message
Placing seventh is Women’s Aid’s chilling World Cup domestic abuse campaign.
Developed in partnership with creative agency House 337, the charity’s cutting promotion intended to bring to light the realities of sports-linked domestic violence.
According to research carried out by the University of Lancaster, incidents of domestic violence can increase by up to 38% during major international football tournaments.
The campaign is part of a wider two-year campaign running until 2024 – ‘Come Together To End Domestic Abuse’ – which has gained support from celebrities such as the Spice Girls’ Mel B and Dame Julie Walters.
6 – Volvo’s electric vehicle-promoting campaign
Clinching sixth place is Volvo’s innovative October OOH campaign that hoped to address negative consumer perceptions surrounding electric vehicles and their charge times.
Each billboard was unique to its location, giving out details about local leisure activities people could enjoy while they waited for their electric vehicles to charge. The suggested activities were intended to last 40 minutes – the average time it takes to charge an electric vehicle.
The car brand’s campaign, created by agency Grey London, also directed people to the nearest fast-charging points.
“We wanted to debunk the biggest myth surrounding electric vehicles – that there aren’t many conveniently placed charging points and that EVs take a long time to charge,” Grey London creatives Chaz Mather and Lucy Jones said.
5 – Tesco Mobile’s cheeky Brits abroad billboards
Now for the top five.
Tesco Mobile’s cheeky billboards – released in July – poked fun at Brits abroad in a bid to promote the retailer’s EU network services.
The OOH ads played upon the idea that British holiday-makers often seek home comforts when residing in a foreign country. Posters mimicked what Brits may have searched online, with phrases including ‘Spanish for beans on toast?”, “Is jambon ham or jam? and “Italiano for ketchup”.
Created by agency BBH, the ads rolled out just months after Tesco Mobile had three similar OOH ads banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for alluding to offensive expletives.
4 – Numan OOH ads break taboos surrounding erectile dysfunction
Just missing out on third place is Numan’s risqué and provocative digital out-of-home campaign that intended to challenge notions surrounding erectile dysfunction.
The innuendo-heavy campaign from the men’s health platform featured a series of billboards which all made humorous allusions to the male instrument in a bid to normalise discussions around male sexual health concerns.
Words like ‘wiener’ and ‘pecker’ definitely caught the attention of passers-by.
The ‘Fix yours’ creative was designed by the firm’s in-house team, with media planning and buying handled by brand growth outfit Bountiful Cow.
Using Route data technology, the boards were also set to be activated strategically at times of maximal male footfall.
3 – ‘Horniculture’ older people condom campaign
Taking home the bronze medal is relationships charity Relate with its tongue-in-cheek ‘Horniculture’ campaign.
The gardening centre and DOOH condom promotion intended to target the rise of STIs in later life sex.
Supplied by HANX, the sustainable and bio-degradable condom packet designs nodded to the cheekiest of vegetable emojis and were displayed on billboards and in garden centres across the UK.
The Ogilvy-created campaign was launched after studies found that STI infections have more than doubled in the past ten years among UK adults aged 65 and older.
“By bringing the sexual health debate to an unexpected environment like a garden centre, the campaign will help break down taboos and get people talking about later life sex,” the agency added.
2 – Brandalism’s carbon footprint-damning OOH hacked ads
Losing out to pole position and in second place is Brandalism and its OOH stunt that saw the advertising activist group hack and take over 500 billboards across Europe to criticise the role airline ads play in encouraging pollution.
The various pieces of satirical artwork used aviation company names and branding to then highlight and poke fun at the damage the industry causes to the environment.
A fake Lufthansa ad read: “#SayYesToTheEndOfTheWorld. At Lufthansa, we distract you with pictures of trees while we fry the planet. Greenwash ads by DDB München.”
Another satirical piece criticised British Airways and included the copy: “We’re turning Business Class green with the world’s first on-board golf course.”
1 – CALM’s heartbreaking suicide prevention campaign ‘smiling portraits’
The winner of this year’s best OOH ad undoubtedly goes to mental health charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and its ‘Last Photo’ suicide prevention initiative.
Back in June, Londoners were brought to a standstill by 50 6.5-foot high, unbranded ‘smiling portraits’, placed in London’s South Bank area. What first seemed to be photographs of people living ‘happy, care-free lives’, were soon revealed to be the last photos of people who took their own lives.
The OOH campaign aimed to highlight the harrowing fact that ‘suicidal doesn’t always look suicidal’ and that there is often a stigma attached to suicide, with people assuming that it looks like “reclusiveness, crying and silence” beforehand.
CALM CEO Simon Gunning spoke to Marketing Beat about the families that visited the portraits of their loved ones, adding: “One really lovely participant had made a teddy bear out of her brother’s clothes.”
“There was also a family who had brought a great big comic box. They were all having gin and tonics and toasting the picture of their loved one.”
