OOH is an art, but also a test of bravery. Say nothing and go unnoticed.
Say something wrong and you have to physically fall on the sword in front of the world and tear it down by hand.
For Nike this won't change much. They are Nike. But I'm sure their next billboards from their ad agencies will play it a little safe. Equinox played with this same tone a few years ago and got smacked, so for the record I'm not sure this was an unknowing choice (maybe they felt like playing with a little fire) and that's okay because again, Nike will survive.
Also, for that same record, I don't hate this billboard. (Don't come for me). Do I think it's their most clever ever and that this was worth it? NO. Do I think elite runners who buy from Nike secretly love it? Totally. That's all. A lot of the time our core customer secretly does like the things that get us in trouble / because our haters are loud.
But can just any brand do what they want in OOH, in the physical landscape, and live to tell the tale? Not even a little bit.
The risk with OOH is a good billboard and good copy doesn't cut it.
You have to go in for the kill or you say nothing and get nothing in return. The kill sometimes gets you killed though so important to watch your back.
I have a pretty simple policy for OOH and I've created many billboards and written the billboard copy myself. My policy is go for blood or be beautiful.
This week, I'm going to show you the billboards that I've saved in my phone that I've had to stop and take a picture of in my real life. That struck a copy cord. We'll go into it in depth, but before we get to the examples I want to remind you that it is very hard to write a once in a lifetime line of copy.
It's hard to so when you're on deadline and we must go to print! It's really important to remember that if you can't find that once in a lifetime line of copy, you have options.
Just because your billboard won't make me take a picture of it because it's not the most profound line of copy in the world, it doesn't mean it didn't work! If you can't come up with that copy zinger, do us all a favor and pivot out to a beautiful asset.
There are billboards that I won't stop and take a picture of but that do convince me to buy. It need not be clever to be effective. Like I'm sure I've passed a fucking Taco Bell billboard and I probably bought Taco Bell because they showed me their new menu item and it looked good lol.
But if you're going for copy, you have to write copy that sings. Copy that stops people. Copy that your customer wants. And, if you can't find that line, you can't use stock or something that doesn't sing if the pivot is to go asset-based. You can't phone any part of this in.
OOH is always a bet and it's always hard to measure. But you'll know if you got it wrong. Oh baby they'll tell you. That's my message. You can do real harm here (again, that Nike ad is not "real harm" but it could have been if it were a different brand or if they went harder).
Here's where they landed in the V2:
