Favorite Ads of 2024

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Creating an ingenious advertising campaign has become more complex than ever in today’s advertising sphere. Advertisers are constantly trying to differentiate themselves and have their message stand out among the rest.

This is challenging as there is a slew of ads circulating all around us, and with countless more being pushed every day, creativity can be hard to come by, especially in out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

Although breaking away from a monotonous flow of uninspired ads is challenging, we’ve collected a list of three that truly broke the mold in 2024 and show us that ingenuity is still around and can be expected to spearhead OOH advertising within 2025.

Deadpool & Wolverine x HEINZ

Many know of the Deadpool and Wolverine movie franchises, and now of the crossover movie that has recently premiered. The Deadpool & Wolverine movie revealed the epitome of creative advertising through its partnership with the HEINZ brand.

HEINZ is known for its iconic red and yellow bottles for ketchup and mustard, respectively. The partnership between the movie and legendary condiment retailer set a goal to create a strong association between the two as they share the same colors, and that’s precisely what they did.

Deadpool & Wolverine and HEINZ advertisements.https://torro.io/blog/marketing-genius-how-heinz-leveraged-pop-culture-with-deadpool-and-wolverine

Through clever geographic juxtaposition, this advertising campaign was able to insert itself at the intersection of culture and many’s irrational love for HEINZ.

This partnership’s success did not only occur due to juxtaposed displays but also through the recurring and scattered OOH advertisements that connected the two brands, ultimately resulting in a massively successful campaign.

Smile 2

Smile, a horror franchise, made use of 3D elements along with guerrilla advertising to create an incredibly effective and sensational campaign.

Smile 2 billboard.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KGOKj_xyO_0/maxresdefault.jpghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgoD-xVA8bI

This franchise utilized billboards with bright red colors to capture attention from far away onlookers and 3D elements to increase view time as it created an intriguing display.

Paired with guerrilla advertising that included appearances at highly public events, “Smile” signage in public areas, and hired individuals bearing eerie smiles, the entire campaign was able to draw astounding attention and profitable success for the premier of the movie.

Wicked

Continuing on the topic of 3D elements, the Wicked movie made excellent use of these—even to the point of seemingly defying gravity (pun intended).

Several OOH displays for the Wicked movie incorporated 3D florals and nature that draw a stark contrast to 2D images. This creates another layer of life and intrigue, increasing viewing time on a given display.

https://www.signlink.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/wicked-1.jpg

The pizzazz created from the florals and nature blended effortlessly with the color scheme of the characters on the billboard, allowing the 3D features to make sense and enhance the display rather than taking attention away from it, earning it a spot on the list of our favorite ads.

What To Expect Next

2025 will be all about innovation and propelling the OOH industry and countless other sectors into the future.

Creativity is going to be at the forefront of everything we do as we will be paving the way for never-before-done or seen creations, especially with the way billboards and other displays are designed.

3D elements will become increasingly used en mass, especially with DOOH (digital out-of-home) displays, allowing messages to seem larger than life. AI will then revolutionize OOH next, allowing for messages to change in a heartbeat.

Advertising will transform throughout 2025, and we cannot wait to share our thoughts on which ads will take the cake in our following end-of-year recap.