Choosing to advertise on billboards is a great way to get your brand or product in the public eye, but with the sheer amount of competition for advertising space, it’s a good idea to make your billboards stand out – sometimes even literally.
![Big green billboard with Heineken bottle.]( "Beer?")
![Blood is splattered from the billboard covering parked cars.]( "slice of great design")
![Empty loo roll holder, projected 3D from billboard.]( "new spin on sheet campaign")
![Billboard transformed to look like a ski slope, with snowboarder cut-out positioned above.]( "Mammoth task")
![Giant bespoke bridge using goalkeepers form.]( "ADjusting the goalposts")
Here’s a selection of some of the most impressive 3D billboards in recent years from companies who have gone the extra mile to stand out from the crowd.
Heineken tempt Amsterdam with a beer
This creative effort from Heineken was located in Amsterdam, and creates a 3D illusion of a hand bursting from behind the billboard to grab a bottle of the refreshing Dutch lager. It’s accompanied by a single word of text – ‘biertje?’ meaning ‘beer?’ in English – making it brilliantly simple and effective.
Kill Bill campaign brings gore to the streets
This gory billboard in Auckland, New Zealand was used to promote the screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movie on television. The ad saw blood (probably red paint – or maybe ketchup) spurt from Uma Thurman’s sword and drench what were, hopefully, two hire cars…
Imodium roll out 3D billboard
For a brand such as Imodium – an American diarrhoea treatment medicine – it must be pretty difficult to devise a billboard that doesn’t make its viewers feel a bit nauseous. Imodium decided to go for a more humorous approach to their advertising campaign, with this billboard featuring a large, 3D empty toilet roll. Lovely.
Mammoth Mountain campaign highlights hangtime
This effort is from Mammoth Mountain, a ski and snowboarding resort in Northern California. The curved, plain billboard which represents a snowy ski slope would be reasonably effective on its own, but with the addition of a snowboarder ‘catching air’ above the ad, it transforms the billboard into an innovative piece of 3D advertising.
Adidas 'save' their best effort for the World Cup
It’s no secret that football advertising is big business, and in 2006 sports manufacturer Adidas launched a huge outdoor campaign in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup in Germany. Located near Munich Airport, the advert featured the then-Germany and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn stretching across a bridge over the Autobahn to make a save. You could maybe say that Adidas went a step too far with this campaign – given that advertising on Germany’s Autobahn is actually against the law…
