Flutter Entertainment
Formally known as Paddy Power, one of the UK’s most prominent sports betting companies, is not often thought of as a company that performs social goods.
However, back in March 2020, the company appealed to the “Stay At Home” order by creating a clever “Give our NHS Better Odds” campaign to lessen the negative impact on the healthcare system.
The campaign was run by Clear Channel. It was incredibly simple, yet surprisingly effective. The most astounding part was that this impactful, social OOH marketing came from a company that you would least expect it to come from.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is probably one of the few brands out there that don’t need to throw a logo on its billboards to advertise. The company’s products are more than recognizable. Back in September, the company launched its ‘Bitten Billboards’ campaign in Paris. Just like you might expect, the campaign featured small billboards with large “bites’ taken out.
Unlike Flutter Entertainment, McDonald’s chose not to reference COVID-19, which we believe was on purpose considering the fact that they tried to represent social distancing by separating the golden arches in the logo for McDonald’s Brazil, a decision that greatly backfired.
Bumble
You might know Bumble as one of the world’s top dating apps. For their 2020 OOH campaign, the company launched clever and relatable billboards referencing what dating might look like in a post-corona world.
Some of the slogans on these billboards read “Look for a rebel who washes their hands” and “Add falling in love to the list of crazy things that happened in 2020.”
The billboards made use of the ultra-recognizable yellow used in most of Bumble’s branding, helping to catch the eyes of passersby. The billboards were a wonderfully humorous reflection of the strange occurrences in 2020, giving marketers the confirmation that silliness often wins the race.
Knix
Rather than looking to billboards or the sides of large buildings, the Knix underwear brand chose to utilize a New York City dumpster to tell women to “stop trashing their periods” for the launch of the company’s new Leakproof Underwear. As nearly six billion tampons end up filling US landfills each year, the message was meant to bring feminine hygiene waste to light.
The campaign was a smash on social media and an excellent example of how to utilize unique mediums for OOH advertising.