While Australia might still be in various stages of lockdown, a lot of the rest of the world has trickled out and about, and with outdoor traffic comes the return of outdoor advertising.
In fact, according to WARC data, OOH advertising budgets have returned to growth for the the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
So whether you're lucky enough to be properly out on the streets or you want to create some neighbourly out of home in your front window here is some inspiration of some of the best Outdoor advertising in recent times (borrowed heavily, but not entirely from the recent outdoor category winners at Cannes).
Boards of Change
In Chicago plywood boards covered in messages of unity and justice that had been used to barricade storefronts during the Black Lives Matter protests were repurposed to create voting booths during the 2020 US Election. The visual reminder of the political context of the election was used to encourage voting in Chicago's low-turnout neighbourhoods
Heneiken Shutter Ads
As the pandemic forced bars to close across the world, Heineken redirected it's media budget to the closed shutters of bars that were doing it tough.
The Homeless Bank Account
HSBC in the UK realised the hugely problematic and cyclical issue of needing to list a home address when opening a bank account. By partnering with registered charities HSBC made it viable to list the address of a registered charity in lieu of a home address. HSBC advertised this new ability in outdoor areas with high rates of homelessness. In addition to this they also used outdoor QR code creative to help raise funds to get 100 people back into housing.
A shout out to a very cute campaign...
Barkboards
Direct-to-consumer dog food company Jinx decided to cut out the middle man/owner. By creating a series of tiny billboards and coating them with a non-toxic scent the company encouraged dogs to interact with the tiny advertisements and in turn alert their dog-food-buying owners.
Another shout out to the talented team who made this one...(biased or not, it's an eye-catching campaign!)
Crazy Domains
As a part of a wider campaign on a range of channels, Crazy Domains (with the help of our very own creative and media specialists) dramatised all the things that can go wrong in the real world that could never happen online. Melbourne traffic bore witness to a very visual reminder of the perils that could face your brick and mortar store, or in fact your irl billboard as well!
A couple of ideas that go entirely outside of the traditional idea of outdoor:
Renault Village Electrique
In this Outdoor Grand Prix Winning Cannes campaign, Renault provided a brand new electric car to all the residents of a remote French town for 3 years. They shot a documentary of the first six months of this journey and aired it across France. By creating the first fully electric town in the world the brand highlighted just how regular the daily-lives of its citizens remained. It's very normal residents climbed the same hills, drove the same distances and in doing so publicly combatted the key consumer hurdles remaining around electric vehicles.
The Donation Dollar
A local idea from Saatchi & Saatchi highlighted the issue that charities face in regards to less circulation of physical currency on our streets. Charities and those doing it tough have traditionally heavily relied on this as a large portion of their fund-raising. The Australian Royal Mint responded to this by creating 25 million (one made for every Australian) 'donation dollars' to serve as a reminder to donate. If all Australians donated just $1 a month charities would see an annual increase of $3bn in donations made in ten years.
I know missing out of home billboards is the hardest thing about lockdown - may we all be out, witnessing this creative glory again soon enough!
Zara Cooper
