Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-104-gavin-lester

Podcast #104 features the funny and super talented Gavin Lester, partner and CCO at Zambezi advertising.

Gavin is the fourth in our series of America specials and brought not just great stories, but as the episode progressed, we realised he and Dan had been to school together which was hilarious. What’s more, he and Hugh knew each other from BBH days in London when Gavin and Ant (his partner at the time) were running through walls with Jonathan Glazer for Levi’s.

The bulk of our chat was around Liquid I.V. and the Times Square takeover - one of the most audacious stunts ever attempted in this iconic space. Every digital billboard was synced to displayed an ‘error’ message to mimic a dehydration ‘glitch’. And then at exactly 4:00 p.m.—rebranded as ‘I.V. O’Clock’ —the screens refreshed to a vibrant brand display while 50 Kiwibot robots distributed samples to the crowd.

We also discussed the Traeger Wood Fired Grills campaign, which turned a billboard into a ‘Grillboard’, (vegetarians may want to skip this bit) Each day, an animal disappeared from the farm below the billboard and showed up in all its delicious glory on the ‘Grillboard.’ Amplified on social media and with tonnes of pr, this single Grillboard pulled nearly every marketing lever and won a shit ton of awards.

We talked about Gavin’s art too, which is f***ing cool. Highly conceptual, witty, provocative - much like the man himself - we hope one day to own ‘A Lester’. For now we managed a selfie with the artist, adman and lovable chap.

Thanks so much Gav for coming on, it was a blast. Look us up next time you’re over.

And as ever, huge thanks to all our sponsors, who make the show possible:

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-103-katie-dinardo-kelley-barrett

Episode #103 features Katie DiNardo & Kelley Barrett, creative directors at Uncommon New York.

Katie & Kelley are a brilliant and prolific team. They started their career at Leo Burnett, Chicago creating the anti-gun violence campaign “The Lost Class" which won a Titanium Lion, one of the most revered accolades in the industry. Their rise to fame has continued at pace ever since, being included in both AdAge's "Creatives to Watch " and Adweek's "Creative 100" lists from 2025.

We started our chat with British Airways, which was most apt as we flew out on BA, and for the week were Englishmen in New York. We love the BA campaign, and it was great to see previously unseen executions, ‘A city that sleeps’ is a cracker.

Next we talked pain. The retail kind. A social experiment in SoHo, New York, during Fashion Week, featuring a claw machine containing a single, un-winnable Hermès Birkin bag worth $10,000. A provocative and brilliant use of OOH. Prior to installation, ads across the city were asking "Want pain?" or proclaiming "One priceless handbag you have zero chance of winning," to build intrigue. For those who came along, consolation prizes of t-shirts and keychains eased the pain, extending the ironic message beyond physical the stunt itself.

Although not pure OOH, we also chatted a bit about The Lost Class, just because it was a big moment and an incredibly important campaign.

We finished on DePop with witty fashion billboards. People sharing their clothes. The buyer and seller together inside the same jumper together. Much like K&K themselves.

Thank you so much Katie & Kelley. It was great to have you on the show and best of luck with the wedding plans 👰 💍 👰

And as ever, huge thanks to all our sponsors, who make the show possible:

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-102-samira-ansari

Episode #102 continues our USA series with Samira Ansari, CCO at Ogilvy, New York. Samira’s career has spanned roles in Melbourne, Paris, and now NYC.

We began with a D&AD award winning campaign from the start of Samira’s career at Cummins & Partners, an announcement ad for Virgin Blue flying in Rockhampton. With a small sticker strategically placed on airport windows the campaign literally took off. A wonderfully simple idea which we reckon could have been the inspiration for BA Look up ;-)

Next the ground-breaking Michelob Ultra McEnroe vs. McEnroe virtual tennis match which won a Sports Emmy and a Gold Lion. We’ve previously spoken to Alex Abrantes (episode #57) on this, but it was nice to hear Samira’s point of view on a campaign that garnered $20m earned media, 3bn impressions and became a piece of global entertainment

For Coke, we talked about the ReCycle me campaign. A brilliantly simple idea, which won a ton of awards, including a Grand Prix at Cannes. We chatted about how the idea came to life, the brief (it’s on the side of the can: RECYCLE ME) the global reach of the work and how each ‘re-cycled’ headline was crafted and chosen.

Last but not least we went behind the trifle, at the top of the fridge, to find a Stella and the story behind the ‘Hiders Keepers’ campaign. The shots from legendary photographer @aleburset (hopefully coming on the show this Spring) are amazing - a sort of boozy Where’s Wally?

Thank you Samira so much for coming on the show and sharing your work and we hope your knee is feeling better 🤕

Special thanks also to Joe at Rockefeller Studios, @Newsstandstudios2 our home for the week in New York where he made us incredibly welcome in his cosy studio 🎙️ 🤩

And as ever, huge thanks to all our sponsors, who make the show possible:

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-101-behind-the-billboard-x-ad-club-of-new-york

Episode #101 takes us to America and the first of our New York Specials, which was a collaboration with the Ad Club of New York at their annual Breakfast Briefing “OOH NOW” in Tribeca, downtown Manhattan. It was a great event, a room full of the smartest (and loudest!) in the industry. Elicia Greenberg & Tara Claesgens were our wonderful hosts who made us feel incredibly welcome.

The theme was ‘OOH NOW - the last real thing’ a poignant topic which resonated with all guests. On the day we had 10 mins each with key speakers and attendees, discovering how things work stateside and what OOH has to look forward to in 2026.

Jim Norton from Outfront Media discussed how internal creative teams help clients without agencies make the most of OOH creative. Jim talked about one of the key BtB sponsors, SuperOptimal, and how their tools are helping shape OOH renewals on their ‘perm' bookings. Jim’s favourite billboard is for his brother’s lawn mower company in Boston: ‘Say no to weeds’

Ryan Laul from Talon was in the hot seat next. Ryan is an Ad Club board member and chatted about how these legendary breakfast briefings have changed over the years. We also heard how the Talon Tech Stack is targeting audiences on the go.

Grace Teng from Zambezi talked about her agency’s successful integrated approach to work, thanks to bringing media back into the building alongside creative. More on this on an upcoming episode, when we chat with CCO Gavin Lester about an incredible Times Square takeover for Liquid IV. Jackie Lyons from Havas discussed the scale of working in the States and the challenges of creating a truly ‘national’ OOH campaign … leaning on her experience of cross-board planning for Diageo in Europe.

Rhianna Jones from MediaHub talked about the benefits of a business born out of a need for disruption, using OOH as an opportunity for experience. While Mendi Robinson from Lamar chatted about the challenges of supporting clients creatively with many shapes and sizes of screen and units across just their own estate.

Huge thanks:

Advertising Club of New York

Newsstand Studios

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/btb-100

Yes folks it’s here. Episode #100!! It’s been an incredible time, 100 episodes over six years. Thank you so much to all our amazing guests and listeners for being with us on this journey. It’s been rewarding, inspiring and many other things. And it feels like we’re just getting started. 2026 is going to be full of great guests and more adventures. But for now sit back with a tipple of your choice and enjoy Sir John Hegarty counting down the greatest billboards of all time, as chosen by the people that write them. Our guests comprise conservatively over 2000 years of experience in the industry so in our humble opinion look nowhere else for your top 100.

BBH features many times, so we took the opportunity to discuss BBH past and present with Sir John. Levi’s was obviously prominent with the black sheep billboard at number 20. We got behind the story of when the world zigs, zag. Plus a funny bonus story told about the Richard Avedon campaign and how the scrawled headlines came about after Heg told art director Martin Galton his original typography was ‘fucking shit’. Martin left the review in a fit of rage and returned minutes later with three hand written headlines and slung them onto Heg’s desk. And the rest is history.

We did the no logo debate, discussing whether brands have gone too far in reductive executions.

We chatted about how originating a campaign is like launching a rocket - it’s the first 6 seconds that count. We went over long running campaigns such as Silk Cut, Economist and Specsavers and pondered why there’s a lack of these any more.

And of course Sir John revealed the winner.

It’s an immense collection of work and one sure to fuel debate. Feel free to agree / whoop from the sidelines / add heart emojis. Or rage at what isn’t in there / or what was actually a press ad / or what actually ran or not?! It’s a brilliant way to sign off the year.

A few final thanks to Jon Jones for being a star
Ditto Rob. And of course huge appreciation for our sponsors:

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-99-best-of-2025

Here we go folks. It’s the end of year list you’ve been waiting for. Behind the Billboard’s ‘Best of 2025’ with mince pies and dodgy crackers thrown in for good measure.

In our humble opinion it’s been another great year for outdoor. Some brilliant work from the usual suspects, plus nice surprises from new agencies. Hopefully you’ll agree with our choices but if not, feel free to comment or drop us a note.

The big questions: Will BBOOH retain their Agency of the year crown? Will a billboard without a logo win? And will Hugh wear his Christmas cracker hat throughout the show?

Categories include Poster of the year, Campaign of the year, Agency of the year, and Client of the year.

A huge thanks to all our guests for coming in and sharing the stories behind their billboards. It’s been a total pleasure chatting in the booth. And an even bigger thanks to you our listeners - without you guys we honestly wouldn’t be doing it. Please keep sending us your work or work you’ve seen and think should be included. And of course keep liking and subscribing and spreading the good vibes.

Thanks to our sponsors

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And the legends Rach, Adrian, Nick and all the gang at Soho Radio

And of course thanks to superstar Jon Jones.

Merry Christmas one and all. Enjoy this special time of year wherever and whoever you’re with. See you on the other side. x

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-98-peter-heyes

Episode #98 feature Pete Heyes, award-winning creative, creative director, top northern lad and United fan.

Pete has worked in the business for over 30 years at some of the very best agencies, including DDB and Leo Burnett. He’s won awards on huge brands such as McDonald’s, VW, Marmite and Harvey Nichols. People often talk about Pete as ‘one of the nicest guys in the business’. Which we can vouch for. Fun Pete fact: he was once a Media Planner on P&G.

We started as usual with the billboard at the end of Pete’s street, which is from the recent British Airways campaign. So yes, you guessed it, we had yet more ‘logo v no logo’ chat. Then we jumped into another topical debate, the potential demise of the DDB name.

And all this before the work, of which Pete has loads. We distilled it down to four clients in the end:
VW, Marmite, Magners, and McDonald’s.

For VW we got behind the story of the classy and minimalist Touareg campaign shot by Giles Revell.

Magners was an exercise in collaboration with Illustrator/Artist: Noma Bar, who seems to be everywhere atm, but Pete was the first to use him in advertising.

Marmite was the Christmas lights, a bit of love ‘n hate for the festive season. Most apt!

While for McDonald’s there were many campaigns which Pete worked on both as a creative and a creative director. We managed to cover McNuggets, Lights on McDelivery / Iconic Stacks (Creatives: Andrew Long & James Millers), See One, Want One / Search (Creatives: Phillip Meyler & Darren Keff)

Thanks so much for coming on Pete. It was a real pleasure talking about your work and the current state of the industry. Apologies for not having a pint. But hopefully we can fit one in before Christmas.

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-97-andy-clough-richard-mcgrann

Good things come to those who wait … and we’ve been waiting a while for Andy Clough & Richard McGrann, but it was thoroughly worth it. Andy & Rich are one of adland’s most brilliant and prolific teams, creating iconic award-winning work wherever they’ve worked. RKCR / Y&R, BBH, AMVBBDO, adam&eveDDB and Neverland have all benefited from their passion for big ideas, superbly executed. They’ve won awards wherever they’ve been, including 5 Grand Prix for their emotive ‘The Last Photo’ campaign for CALM, placing them amongst the world’s most awarded creatives at D&AD and Cannes.

In a packed episode, we talked about The Times ‘Biggest For Sport’ campaign and got a sneak peek into Andy’s notebook and his sketches which were incredibly close to the finished work.

For The Last Photo we discovered the inspiration for the big idea came in part from a Google search for ‘depression / suicide’. Every result had people sad, head in hands, in a dark place. The question was asked, what if people looked happy? Like a weight had been lifted, because they had decided to take the next step. This lead to the line ‘Suicide doesn’t always look suicidal’ and the concept of the last photo featuring real people. It’s an incredibly moving story and a worthy follow up to the previous year’s Project84 from Ant & Mike.

We went into the wild with Whiskas, Feeding Your Cat’s Instinct, which naturally won an outdoor Lion ;-)

While for The Economist, for once we didn’t discuss white headlines out of red, instead a thought provoking piece of DOOH on the subject of assisted suicide.

Another important project was for Melanoma, more great crafting a simple graphic idea. And of course we found out how pot holes help create a great poster campaign for Pot Noodle.

Gents, it was a total pleasure. So much amazing work for such a range of brands and projects, a tour de force in the great outdoors. Thank you so much.

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-96-ajab-samrai

Episode #96 features Ajab Samrai, Ex-CCO of Ogilvy Japan, who not only brought incredible stories of nearly four decades in the business, but two enormous bags of apples from his orchard in the Malvern Hills.

We discussed how Ajab started his career at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1987 as one of the first British born Asians to break into the industry, creating the iconic Commission for Racial Equality poster campaign. He became one of the youngest Creative Group Heads in the history of Saatchi’s going on to work on some of the world’s biggest brands.

We discovered why he decided to ‘frighten himself’ after his long tenure at Saatchi’s to take up the challenge of Ogilvy Japan, an agency in a different country, with a different culture and different language. Plus the agency was stuck at the very bottom of the Ogilvy league. No pressure then!

His story of success is a lesson in perseverance and belief with some incredible OOH projects for Tokyo FM and Uber Eats, helping Ogilvy Japan become agency of the year and Ajab was named Japanese creative of the year. This success helped push his awards tally to over 300, winning major honours at every show in the world.

Listen to the craft that went into the Sagawa soy sauce campaign, where all the imagery was created by an artist using soy sauce. And hear how the Condomania campaign flirted with suffocating the cast on what must be one of the most insane shoots ever. We even had time to cover the Mount Fuji Rubbish Billboards which were anything but rubbish, cleaning up the mountain and at awards shows alike.

Ajab thank you so much for being so generous with your stories (and your apples!). It was a real pleasure.

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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-95-simkat

Episode #95 features Sim Sidhu and Katy David aka ‘SimKat’, one of BBH’s most brilliant and prolific young teams.

We talked about their rise to fame at BBH after their time spent along the corridor at The BBH Barn Adschool, where they learnt the ways of the business from legendary and much missed tutor Tony Cullingham. One of Tony’s classic questions he asked anyone at any level: “Are you having fun?”

It’s a really important question.

Fun seems to run through much of SimKat’s work. TC would be proud. Their proactive approach is a lesson in making shit happen.

In an effort to secure their job they showed the then ECD Helen Rhodes an ad a day for BBH clients for an entire year. It paid off and they were soon winning awards for debut work on Barnardos and The Fire Safe Sari.

Since then there’s been great work on Audi, esp the recent Proms inspired campaign, creating musical scores to mimic the throaty sound of the more powerful Audi models.

Arch Nemesis for BK was a triumph in cheekiness and speed of turnaround. Along the way they met Gordon Ramsey before their latest work, creating a bookshop to tell the world about the Monzo book of money. This audacious idea is a fully fledged bookstore called ‘Booknook’ home to 3000 books each with a different front cover, all to help people better understand how to use their money.

SimKat thank you so much for coming on. You’re a breath of fresh air in the great outdoors. Long may it continue. Stay in touch!

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