When it comes to out-of-home advertising, thinking outside the box often yields the best results. Commuters love being surprised or amused by what they see on their daily drives. They appreciate creative, interactive experiences and admire brands that go the extra mile to make an impact.
Clients frequently ask us, “What’s something unique and memorable we can do to stand out?” Often, they envision concepts like the three-dimensional cows on Chick-fil-A billboards. While those are undeniably fun, there’s so much more potential to explore.
At DASH TWO, we specialize in creating standout campaigns, including innovative outdoor advertising options such as chalk stencils, building projections, sidewalk decals, LED digital trucks, wrapped food trucks, and murals. And yes, if props or themed installations like cows are your style, we can bring that to life, too.
These creative executions work in any market, but they’re especially impactful in major cities. Top-five markets offer incredible opportunities due to their size and foot traffic, but they also present unique challenges — intense competition for attention. Your campaign needs to rise above the noise to capture interest.
By embracing bold, out-of-the-box ideas, you *can* become the talk of the town. We’ve brainstormed unique concepts tailored to top markets, each designed to make your brand stand out. Whether you’re imagining large-scale installations, interactive displays, or something entirely unexpected, we have the expertise to make it happen. Explore the possibilities, and let’s create something extraordinary together.
1. New York
The Big Apple is the biggest market in the country, and that means a ton of exciting options you can’t match elsewhere. Here are our four favorites.
Glass Display Trucks
The box portion of the truck includes all-glass sides, so that you can see right into it. You can decorate it to match what you’re promoting, such as the theme of a movie. You can put two or three people in the truck dressed in character, waving to people on the streets. We can park the car on the side of the road to pass out freebies like coffee — the interactive element lifts this stunt’s desirability. You can target by:
- Street address.
- Zip code.
- Neighborhood.
- Demographics.
- Competitors.
- Locations.
Wrapped Coffee or Food Carts
Put your brand on the side of a coffee or food cart, which are all around the city, and reach people on their lunch hours or on the way home from work.
3D Animated Billboards
A 3D billboard is anamorphic, using distortion to make an image appear three-dimensional. Think a lizard “jumping” out of an animated advertisement or giant hands reaching out to “grab” you.
Wrapped and Built-Out Pedi Cabs
Pedi cabs are a distinctly big-city thing, and tourists love being cycled to their destinations in style. Manhattan Rickshaw offers branded and wrapped pedi cabs (imagine a seat made to look like the throne in Game of Thrones).
2. Los Angeles
The country’s second-biggest OOH market is well known for Sunset Boulevard. Our capabilities go well beyond that, and these are four of our favorites.
Black Light Barricades and Murals
Light up the night with black light barricades and murals that look as though they glow in the dark. It’s a great chance for a brand to set itself apart from the usual wallscapes or digital signage, and it has a nostalgic feel to it.
Backlit Barricades
Barricades are quite the rage in LA. In addition to black light barricades, you can also find backlit ones that highlight your message any time of day while also calling attention because of their unique size and placement on the sidewalk.
Visen LED Billboards
Remember how women’s magazines used to advise readers on “how to go from day to night?” It meant swapping a more demure daytime look for something more daring at night. That’s similar to the idea for Visen LED boards, which allow advertisers to use two different creative approaches. For example, we did this for a billboard for the Beatles a few years ago, with the white creative swapping to a look highlighting the band’s members after sunset. The women’s mags were right — it looked very cool!
Truck With a Pull-Out Stage
The truck with a pull-out stage looks similar to the glass truck, but it includes a box that opens up so that the truck becomes a mini stage where an artist can perform. It’s essentially a portable concert platform great for promoting any type of entertainer.
3. Chicago
The Windy City has impressive OOH chops. Check out five of our go-to outdoor advertising platforms in the country’s third-biggest market.
Shelter Takeovers With Built-Out Props
Turning a bus shelter into a destination is one way to grab the attention of commuters. And you can do truly amazing things for shelter takeovers these days. For instance, the water park hotel Great Wolf Lodge ran what looked like waterslide tubes above a shelter, while Redd’s Hard Apple placed an apple tree atop another. But the visuals are just one aspect. To create a full sensory experience, brands can also use:
- Scent machines.
- Heat lamps.
- Fans.
- Dispensers.
Pedi Cab Wraps and Sponsored Rides
Like other markets, in Chicago, you can wrap pedi cabs to reflect a brand, and here you can also prepay for rides, giving people the opportunity to take a pedi cab who otherwise may not have tried it. With, of course, your logo or information splashed across the cab for them to take note of.
Branded Headhouses and Custom Installations
Headhouses provide a sloped cover above subway stations, where thousands of people go in and out every day. Branded headhouses catch the eye with something covering or sitting on top. One promotion, for instance, had a Range Rover perched on the headhouse.
Elevator Wraps
The creative opportunities for elevator wraps in subways are nearly endless. You can do traditional branding of the elevator, paint the floor to make passengers feel like it’s bottomless, or make a fun visual pun using the opening and closing doors.
Tunnel Wraps
Yes, another subway opportunity, this one for the tunnels that commuters travel through. Using a takeover to make the entire tunnel a single theme draws people’s notice.
4. Miami
The country’s fourth-biggest outdoor market has a vibrant beach scene that advertisers can take advantage of. Here are three terrific OOH outlets.
Wrapped Food Truck
While food trucks are available for out of home advertising in all the big markets, we wanted to highlight them in Miami, where the sunny weather and people’s desire to play outside makes food trucks hugely popular. You can brand the truck and choose food that reflects your products or services — fun tie-ins can help people remember your name, too.
Digital Boats
These activations are a lot like mobile billboards, only they cruise the waters of Miami Beach instead of the streets. Digital boats have small boards that can display advertisements or even show movies for a special event where other boats gather.
Guerilla Mural
Available in the Wynwood area only, the murals are works of art that avoid the commercialism of most advertising. The final creative is based on an artist’s rendition of your artwork file.
5. San Francisco
San Franciso is one of the country’s most unique towns, and these three excellent ideas showcase the versatility of the nation’s No. 5 outdoor market.
Station Domination
Available for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations, a domination basically means spreading your branding all over the station, everywhere the eye can see. It creates an inescapable, extremely memorable immersion. See, for example, this domination from Save the Redwoods that covered every surface from floor to ceiling in the Montgomery Street station.
Branded Cable Cars
Is there anything more quintessentially San Francisco than the cable cars crisscrossing the city? With branded cable cars, you can wrap the trolley’s interior and exterior. Brands can also explore similar opportunities on BART trains and Muni buses.
Branded Pedi Cabs
San Francisco’s version of this favorite can include:
- Full wraps.
- Custom upholstery.
- Panel ads.
Honestly, all of these are just the beginning. We can direct you to dozens of imaginative outdoor advertising ideas in the top five markets. Get in touch today so we can discuss your options.