How brands around world leverage outdoor advertisements for winning customers?

Published On
June 18, 2025
Global brands like Apple, Disney, Zomato, and Amazon use outdoor advertising creatively to boost visibility, engage audiences, and drive results. This blog highlights unique strategies and memorable campaigns that prove the enduring power of outdoor ads in modern marketing.

Outdoor advertising is one of the major marketing channels for brands and offers them maximum visibility. It helps new businesses establish themselves in consumer’s minds, launch new product lines, and creatively connect with customers.
International business sharks such as Apple, Microsoft, Tata, and several other companies use outdoor advertising to boost brand awareness and sales.
However, you must understand that getting the desired results from outdoor advertising takes proper strategies and time. So what are those?

Strategies for outdoor advertising

  • Location: use geo-fencing and location data to find the best locations for relevant audiences.
  • Real-time adaption: Use real-time changes with digital billboards to create a custom ad message according to the conditions.
  • Retargeting: retargeting the consumers with online advertising who have seen your outdoor ads. This will reinforce the ad message and leave a lasting impact.
  • Use Creativity: Go for unconventional creative ways to attract an audience.
  • Target demographic: Use demographic data to understand the right audience group and create custom strategies to target them.

Worldwide Brands That Use Outdoor Advertising To Connect With Audiences

Thanks to technology, outdoor billboards, hoardings, and other outdoor ads have become more interactive. Even tech companies use outdoor ads to promote their newly launched product and boost awareness. According to reports, more than 25% of the top 100 out-of-home ad investors are tech companies or direct-to-consumer brands.
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1. Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone6’

When Apple launched its ‘Shot on iPhone 6’ campaign, it became an instant hit in 25 countries. The campaign was even awarded the ‘Grand Prix prize’ at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.
The campaign used user-generated photos and put them on static traditional billboards across 25 countries. The images include hikers, babies, sunsets, and normal pictures from both professionals & amateurs. These billboards fix the photo on a white background and the bottom of the frame says “Shot on iPhone 6".

2. Disney/Pixar’s ‘COCO’ Billboards

The animated film ‘COCO’ is about a boy who discovers the colorful world of the dead. Disney/Pixar started its promotion with colorful billboards with ghostly animated figures. Notably, these billboards used to glow in the dark giving them a completely different perspective on the night.
The billboard also included large text saying ‘COCO’ creating awareness for the upcoming film.
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3. Amazon’s Smart Speakers

Amazon’s marketing showcased phenomenal creativity when they put up a simple, classy, and attractive billboard at Times Square. This billboard was about their smart speakers, ‘Echo’. They used a simple only-text billboard with simple bold text.
‘Alexa, play the song that goes…..Love is all you need.’
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4. Zomato's witty billboards

Zomato has created a unique connection with its customers. Its potential buyers are Gen-Z and young professionals who use humor to describe the world. Zomato includes pop-culture references, memes, songs, Bollywood’s famous dialogues, and current events to connect the audience.
'Ladka Nikal Gaya Hai’, ‘Is Offer Ne To Hila Dala’, ‘Oonchi Hai Building, Lift Teri Band Hai’ and several other witty billboards have made Zomato the billboard king in India.
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5. Surreal Cereal

Surreal cereal promotes healthy living and promotes a breakfast that's high in protein, keto-friendly, and plant-based.
The brand took a surreal approach to billboards, boldly featuring names of the big celebrities. Upon a closer look the ad reveals that the mentioned people are not the celebrities we know but commoners.
When every brand is going after celebrities, Surreal Cereal created a fun & effective ad.

Conclusion

Billboards and hoardings are still relevant and when used smartly, they can be a game changer for brands. In this blog, we have discussed how some of the big brands are using outdoor advertising in unconventional creative ways and getting massive responses.
Our personal favorites are Zomato and Surreal Cereal witty ads. They use humor and wittiness to create a spark, winning instant attention from the audience.
Are you searching for the right outdoor advertising agency to launch your next creative campaign? Connect with Vigyapan Mart outdoor advertising experts today!

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