The 9 Best Billboards of 2014

Should old acquaintance be forgot? Of course not. In this time of New Year’s reflection and holiday cheer, it’s important to remember what has brought us this far.

When it comes to advertising, one of these very important old friends is billboards. Sure, digital channels get more attention in the press these days, but it’s important to remember that billboards continue to engage and delight huge audiences across the globe.

Moreover, despite being around for hundreds (or even thousands) of years, billboards continue to evolve in amazing ways as marketers discover new and creative uses for the medium.

To honor this ever-changing, yet reliable, advertising channel, we’ve picked our top 9 billboards of 2014. Some of these campaigns worked well because they connected with large audiences; others because they pushed the boundaries of what was possible. Some were big, others were small. All were successful in important ways.

Here, then, are our 9 favorites, in no particular order:

1. Quebec City Magic Festival: Magic Mop

What’s the best way to get people excited about an upcoming magic festival? Create an enthralling billboard featuring a mop that seems to float, well, magically.

2. Google: Android Game

Google was the first company to make use of the massive, block-long, digital billboard space that went up in New York’s Times Square this year. The company used the opportunity to smartly showcase its mobile OS, Android, with a giant-scale interactive game and custom avatars.

3. McDonald’s: Classic Menu Items

Fancy digital billboards can be highly engaging, but so can simple traditional billboards. McDonald’s proved that point earlier in the year with a beautiful, wordless campaign in France that took minimalism to the max by featuring only graphic representations of classic menu items.

4. Netflix: Moving GIFs

Another fabulous French campaign came from Netflix, which brilliantly used animated GIFs to showcase its programming and people’s reactions to its shows. The clips were extremely short, which made them perfect for engaging commuters hurrying down Metro tunnels.

5. Old Navy: Selfie Machine

To mark its 20th birthday, Old Navy brilliantly combined two old mediums, billboards and balloons, with the most modern of things: the selfie. To get a giant balloon version of a self-portrait, consumers simply had to tweet out a selfie using a certain hashtag and then watch the magic happen.

6. Sprite: Wisecracking Bill

How do you make commuting more tolerable? Add a wisecracking billboard to a busy traffic circle. To launch a new campaign in Africa, Sprite put up “Bill”—a digital billboard featuring a constantly changing stream of oddly engaging digital musings and groan-inducing jokes.

7. Pictionary: Mall Surprise

What’s better than a sign advertising Pictionary? A sign advertising Pictionary that lets you play the game. What’s even better than that? A sign advertising Pictionary that lets you play the game—and win prizes!

8. Edible Billboard

Mr. Kipling, a food brand in the United Kingdom, made a billboard out of 13,000 cakes to highlight the message “Life is better with cake.” Enough said.

9. Air Purifying Billboard

Finally, a nice reminder that billboards can now do all sorts of things we might never have thought possible a few years ago. To mitigate some of the effects of its campus expansion, Peruvian university UTEC created a billboard that uses water-filtration to purify the air around it. The messaging was both impactful and important—the ideal combination for every marketer.

Implement innovative billboard strategies for your brand. Contact MDG today at 561-338-7797 or visit www.mdgsolutions.com.

MDG is a full-service advertising agency and one of Florida’s top branding firms. With offices in Boca Raton and New York City, MDG’s core capabilities include branding, logo design, print advertising, digital marketing, mobile advertising, email marketing, media planning and buying, TV and radio, outdoor advertising, newspaper, video marketing, Web design and development, content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. To discover the latest trends in advertising and branding, contact MDG today at 561-338-7797.