Behind The Billboard

Episode 9 of Behind the Billboard features the enormously talented Ana Balarin ECD of Mother tells us about her (and husband Hermeti’s) OOH work - from the #freethefeed breast to a life-sized toy boat for IKEA and even a few traditional billboards for KFC. Thank you Ana for sharing some of the best Behind the Billboard stories we’ve ever heard.

Follow along the audio with visuals here: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/anabalarin/

We toyed with the idea of renaming this episode ‘Beyond the Billboard’ given Anas passion for breaking out of the traditional in terms of Outdoor campaign… But then we saw the KFC campaign. Outdoor creative at its finest!
 

We talked about the KFC campaign [which had landed just that week]. A pure and simple Billboard campaign fearing just 2 words, and NO LOGO. The photographic lead campaign was shot by Sam Wright simply has their casted models lost in a moment of Finger Lickin’ goodness. Sandwiched either side of the photo, the words It’s Good.
 

Ana told us that they went through a tremendous amount of casting to find the right models, that finding that right moment of someone licking their fingers is a difficult one. But the outcome looks incredible.

One of her favourite Outdoor campaigns of the last year was the Mural for Derry Girls, by 4 Creative for the hit Channel 4 show. As much about the placement location as much as the creative and craft.

Ana also cited Spotify for ‘Listen How You Used to” from Who Wot Why.

We talked about the ‘State of Outdoor’ and gather Anas opinion on the medium in general. Ana believes we’ve broken free from the billboard and that Outdoor gives us license to to whatever you want [provided you get the permission!]. Outdoor can create experiences, that become collective experiences, unlike other mediums. Ana also talked about Outdoor campaigns being hyper-local and hyper-visual… you can’t hide from it… we’ve put something out that EVERYONE can see and experience.

Ana’s first billboard campaign was for Yellow Pages. The poster was actually for Yell.com, which is what yellow pages became. The campaign was a photograph of an installation where Ana had built a map of UK using the phone books.

Ana went on to tell us all about ‘The Boob’ - or Free the Feed as it’s officially known. It began life as a ‘Mother Project’ - a project the agency get behind each year due for launch around mothers day. The insight around this concept came from some incredible stats around how new mums feel when feeding in public. But the original boobs they intended to put out as part of the launch, got stuck in customs on their long journey from India. Ana recalled a producer eagerly awaiting the arrival of the boob at Heathrow.
 

While it was well received and highly rewarding, the best outcome from the concept was the viral uptake of the hashtag #freethefeed. The concept did its job with the campaign going viral and empowering women all over the world. Part 2 for this concept was with Elvie - the  breast pump company. This time there was 5 boobs across London… the biggest one being 6 metres in diameter.
 

PS - A little known fact was that the boob was going to lactate… but the weather curtailed that!
 

From boobs to Beer… and Becks. The Green Box project. This is a lesser known project in the mainstream really, but it’s incredibly creative use of the outdoor medium. Anas brief was to bring Becks passion for the arts to life in the OOH space, and the response was to create a global interconnected gallery using the green box as an entry point to geo specific augmented reality artworks, from various famous artists. An amazing feat technically at a time when AR was the bleeding edge of technology.

Finally from German Beer to Swedish Furniture, and the launch of the most sustainable store in Greenwich, London. The idea stemmed from another launch for Ikea in Sheffield that Ana and her team worked on. That work became the new standard for store launches. One of the hero pieces was an Ikea toy boat, that was rebuilt life-size that cleaned the river and canal around the Greenwich store. The plastic it collected was taken to the store and recycled.
 

Another element was Ikea wild homes in the Greenwich area for insects, bats and small mammals all upcycled from Ikea furniture.

The final element, a more classic outdoor campaign was a location specific steps to each store. Someone did go to each location and measure the steps from each poster to the store!

Anas favourite billboard campaign of all time is the Economist ads. Classic, simple and minimalism. It’s all rewarding. Viewers make the connection between the creative and the brand. And another is a tube card panel for Guardian called ‘influencer’ featuring a woman reading the guardian on the train next to a child looking at her.

Anas top tip… what is ‘the insight’ behind your concept? Find your insight, hone your creative concept.

Mark joined us in his finery of a Denton branded tracksuit, peaky blinder cap complete with bobble on top and of course trainers and sunnies. What more could we have expected from one of the most incredible London ad men over the last 40 years. Although don’t call him an ad man… he makes films…. “Please send your scripts to www.thomasthomasfilms.co.uk”.

Please visit https://getbehindthebillboard.com/?p=340 for the images to follow along.

Mark joined us with gifts [others take note, we like gifts], we talked briefly about his book the Power of Purelity. You can buy it here, and Mark will chuck in some free gifts… www.coy-com.com/shop
 

Mark reckons there’s a revival going on in Outdoor, some great work sitting proudly from the rest… Mark credits Nils Leonards Uncommon for their work on Habito, Droga5 for Coal Drops Yard, and Atomic for their work on the Royal Opera House posters:

Marks first billboard was for Milk Tray, something he concepted up with the late and great Norman Icke [who came up with the original idea for the milk tray man] while Mark was ‘just a visualiser’ at Leo Burnett. Within weeks Mark was hanging out in New York ready to shoot on top of the JCPenney building.

Mark met his long term creative partners Chris Palmer on set for a TV shoot, a set he shouldn’t have been on! The shoot was for Cadbury’s creme egg, and he’d slipped one of his ideas in with the creative teams one. On a sound stage at Pinewood he bumped into Chris, and he got Mark into BBH within months. Mark recalls John Hegarty hating half of his book in the interview…. But Chris helped nudge John in the right direction.
 

4 1/2 years later… Mark and Chris left to setup Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow Johnson where they worked on Nike among others. We talked about all of the poster work they did…. Originally they were engaged only for Soccer… but soon worked on Rugby, basketball, running, Olympics and many many others.

Of all of them, Mark picked out the Ian Wright football poster. ‘Behind every great goalkeeper there’s a ball from Ian Wright’.

We talked about Advantage Sampras, Charles Barkley and the Marathon no U turns. With the latter 2 styled graphically on political propaganda posters.
 

We moved on to Wrangler, and a lesson to all you creatives out there. If you believe in your concepts keep pushing as hard as you can. If you can invest in your idea and to help sell the concept to your client it might help get great work away.

Then onto another important lesson. Paying your suppliers back for the proactive work you get them working on. Having Malcom shoot the test work, led to more work for the agency and therefore more for Malcom. 
 

Asda we spent a bit of time talking about a favourite execution for Free Range Eggs, featuring a model made chicken on a motorbike, escaping the chicken farm in the style of The Great Escape. The humour is there on all of the executions.

Heineken too had that humour running through it.

Top Tip: Don’t leave it on a Piece a paper. Mark gave us the example of his Samson Batteries, which he’d visualised up as a poster. He managed to turn that poster into 3 TV commercials!

Favourite Billboard of all time. BEANS MEANS HEINZ. Bring back the slogan!

Episode 7 features Rosie Arnold.

Employee number 11 at BBH, D&AD’s first ever female president, multi award-winner, part time fencer and general lover of life, Rosie has done it all. Click this link to see the visuals and the story that goes with the episode. 

https://www.getbehindthebillboard.com/?p=320

Her favourite recent billboard campaign was this one for Budweiser:

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/05/31/budweiser-plays-up-its-music-cred-search-oriented-ooh-campaign

And her first ever Billboard was for Levi’s… Spray on Jeans

We can’t find an image of it anywhere… sorry listeners! If you find one… send it in!

We discussed the Levi’s Incredible Shrinking Man billboards. Shot by the incredible @NadavKander - https://twitter.com/NadavKander.

We heard how photographer Mary Ellen Mark, a millionairess and a colour photocopier helped create the iconic Levi’s ‘Haters’ posters.

Read more about the incredible photographer Mary Ellen Mark: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2015/may/26/mary-ellen-mark-legendary-photographs-in-pictures

Then a decade of Lynx billboard brilliance. We talked about the work for Lynx on 24hours, Masculine and Feminine, The Cerne Giant and The Lynx Effect in general.

On Lynx in particular, Rosie talks about how having good client relationships, outside of the meeting room, is conducive to creating great work. Meeting rooms can be far too high stress for the natural flow of a creative mind to affect the work. We talked about the unsung heroes of these and other campaigns that really stand out… the brave Marketing leads at the client who are prepared to get behind the work, stick their necks on the line and cut a cheque for the music/production/shoot. They believe in the work and the creative process as much as the agency.

Although we strayed away from Rosies work for a while, we talked a bit about what makes great Outdoor work. The simplicity of Outdoor is where some great creative work can happen. Rosie waxed lyrical about Cossette’s Cannes Grand Prix winning billboards for McDonalds, by friend of the show Carlos Moreno. The simplicity of this concept heroes the brand and the medium in one shot. We moved on to KFC and the amazing illustrative work from Surachai and his Thai team [who have amassed over 90 Lions by the way].

We talked about the ‘Just Add Robinsons’ campaign for Robinsons fruit drinks. This iconic work flipped the just add water message on its head and demonstrated the magic that happens in a glass of water when you add Robinsons. The ads we contextual to the summer and outdoor feeling, including one for the Wimbledon Tennis Championship that Robinsons sponsors.

And then the big move from BBH to AMV. Following a life changing few years Rosie headed off to become Head of Art at AMV. Going off to work with Alex and Adrian as ECDs… which lead us on to a proactive piece for Malteasers.

Finally, she even shared with us a bottom drawer billboard idea for Red Nose Day. Redrawing it live on air - a first for the pod - maybe it’ll become a regular feature?

Thanks Rosie for being inspiring, fascinating, fun and more. The world and our industry is a brighter place with you in it.

This week we welcome the incredible talent that is Martha Riley to the show. Martha has forged her career at some awesome agencies working on some incredible brands. Her stand out billboards however have all seem to come for the Airline industry.

Don't forget to head to https://www.getbehindthebillboard.com/?p=307 for the supporting artwork.

Once Hugh got all the airline gags away in the safety announcement, we managed to get behind why Martha loves the Outdoor medium, and what makes it first class [I can’t help myself now].

She took us on a trip [sorry] down memory lane with some fine examples of Outdoor work from her early days while on  placement at Saatchi’s for the BA client. It happened to be her first billboard campaign too which was a great take off point [OK I’m stopping now]. Martha told us the story of a young account manager Carrie Hindmarsh taking the risk of presenting it to the client. Without the bravery of a fantastic account person, this billboard would not have seen the light of day.

We moved on to Martha’s work on Virgin Atlantic while she was freelancing at Rainey Kelly. This is where we she worked up one of her most famous ads that actually trolled BA one of her first clients…. Famous because she very nearly got the word Shite into an ad.

We then talked about another awesome poster for Virgin around their new Caribbean routes. Amazingly well crafted in terms of art direction and typography.

We then talked about a great campaign featuring Dumbo and a Moose. Martha talked very passionately about the late Nancy Fouts, model maker and artist who had an awesome irreverent sense of humour and all round genius. You should read her obituary here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jun/04/nancy-fouts-obituary

We chatted briefly about some other 18-30, Silk Cut and others.

After taking some time out to have a family, Martha found her route back into advertising came from an unlikely source.

Her son was set some homework to design a poster for London 2012… The creative director inside was itching to get involved and worked on her own!

Getting back to her professional life we talked about Martha’s work at BBH for Dulux and Guardian among others. Then on to Ogilvy where Martha again knocked some amazing work out of the park… going full circle we end on an incredibly topical ad for British Airways around the World Cup.

We had such a great chat with Martha, and we could have spoken for hours… but she had to go and get her visa as she’s off on a new adventure to Silicon Valley!

Episode 5 of Behind the Billboard features a number of firsts.

See the website post for the images and videos that we talk about in the podcast...

https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-5-vince-cook-gary-fox-robinson/

Our first creative team, our first BlueJeans powered remote interview and our first (but no means last) OOH work from McDonald’s.

We talked about them meeting on the set of a TV commercial shoot on a US Army base, having been thrown together to make it happen.

Their creative relationship blossomed and soon lead to some memorable billboard work for the Green Beret's, America's Special Forces. The campaign encouraged people to 'Take a Brochure' - with the brochure on the billboard seemingly impossible to get. That one had to be pitched to a 4 Star General for approval. This great campaign also gave the pair their first taste of Cannes glory.

Gary Fox-Robertson and Vince Cook talked to us about their McDonald’s “Sundial” poster - one of the most iconic and audacious billboards of all time.

“At one point we had to call in a NASA scientist to ensure the poster and its sundial arm were precisely positioned to catch the sun every morning, offering an array of breakfast choices for passers by. The shadow's progression span the morning menu and gave each item a literal moment in the sun. At noon, the dial forms a perfect McDonald's M."

It was one of those rare moments, when a billboard made the national news and won Gold at every major award show around the world.

And it’s now made it’s way into our podcast.

Available mornings, noon and night from this Wednesday.

Thanks chaps, a great morning’s work.

Episode 4 of Behind the Billboard features Tony Davidson.

You can see all of the work on the blog post... There's a tonne of great work! https://getbehindthebillboard.com/?p=259

Tony is many wonderful things. Global partner at Wieden & Kennedy, 196 times ‘in-book’ at D&AD (a record) as well being its former President, Cannes Grand Prix winner, strong hugger and just a great big kid who adores ideas and making stuff.

He turned up 30 mins early and left 30 mins late, still texting thoughts and ideas on his way back to the tube. And yet it felt we’d only scratched the surface.

We went though his amazing portfolio of billboards as both CD and Art Director. For the Nike ‘St Wayne’ poster we heard how the art director covered himself in red paint to convince the client to buy the idea. We drilled into the story behind the world’s longest cross track poster with the world’s longest til receipt for the opening of a new Levi’s store. Then there was the reliable rotating VW billboard, Paul Ince and Adidas art direction, Run London, more Levi’s and the painful story of how the invincibles  ‘Arsena’ Nike ad never ran as a billboard. We finished on the recent Coke billboards, featuring a redesign of the logo for the first time in the company’s history, to incorporate a thirsty tongue.

Dan Wieden once said “If you want to be a partner at W+K you got to be some kind of saint and some kind of crazy.” We can safely say Tony is both of these and more. So much amazing work for so many brands with so much to say. A feast for our listeners’ ears. Thanks again Tony. 

You can see all of the work on the blog post... There's a tonne of great work! https://getbehindthebillboard.com/?p=259

Episode 3 features Tim Riley, one of the most famous writers in our industry.

IMAGE OF TIM: http://bit.ly/TimRileyMadMag

We say ‘writer’ rather than Creative Director or Head of Copy (both roles he excels at too), because deep down Tim is a man of words. Pithy, witty, cheeky, emotional, funny words. In his career he has written for John Smiths, The Economist, The Guardian, Boddingtons, Sony, Nike, Snickers, Sainsbury’s, winning awards on virtually every account he’s put his pen to.
 

Economist Array: http://bit.ly/36cH6vM

This incredible body of work has propelled him to the lofty title of Creative Partner at AMVBBDO …..and yet you’d never know from listening to our chat he is a man with such a revered position. Tim is a humble, funny and disarmingly charming guest who was incredibly open and frank in telling us about his career to date.

Jordan Economist: http://bit.ly/2v6mn02

We soon got into The Economist work and how over the past 22 years, Tim has worked as a writer and CD on the account. He told us the story behind the ‘Someone mentions Jordan’ billboard and the circuitous route to the final poster.

We’ll let Tim explain more, but as ever, it’s an unpredictable path to getting work out, and this is another great example that lead to one of the most famous Economist posters ever.
 

BONUS IMAGE - MR BLOBBY! http://bit.ly/2NHHiNm
 

However, the main chat was about Tim’s John Smiths billboards when he was at DDB (now known as Adam&EveDDB).
 

JohnSmiths:

http://bit.ly/3auCGUr

http://bit.ly/36gC3La

http://bit.ly/2G7bzRG

http://bit.ly/2tqnwzb
 

This didn’t disappoint either for back story, involving a bottom drawer idea from a MAD magazine that Tim had had for years and magically pulled out to inspire the brilliant irreverent posters.

MadMagazine: 

http://bit.ly/2G7mISh

http://bit.ly/379oxKk

We admire Tim for his honesty and it should give us all hope that the bottom drawer can still yield greatness.

Nike Jordan:

http://bit.ly/2sFPlmu

Thanks again Tim for your spoken words, along with the written ones, that will hopefully inspire our listeners.

In episode 2 we’re with Art Director extraordinaire Paul Belford.

Paul has worked at more agencies than most of us have had hot dinners…. and that was before he worked anywhere half decent (his words not ours!). Interestingly all of these jobs followed a degree in bio-chemistry! As ever, there are no straight routes into a career in advertising, and what an incredible career Paul has had so far.

Spanning over 30 years at agencies such as TBWA, LEAGAS DELANEY and AMVBBDO, Paul has produced award-winning work for Waterstones, the Economist, PlayStation, Le Creuset, The Guardian to name but a few.

His work is incredibly distinctive. The level of craft is second to none. His name often appears twice in credits. “Art director”. “Designer”. His name even appears on other people’s work as “Designer” he’s that good.

Many a time someone has said in a creative department. “Yeah can you give it a bit more craft. Do a Belford on it.”

We talked mostly about the story behind The Economist lightbulb Billboard. Possibly his most famous billboard and a truly iconic poster.

BILLBOARD IMAGE: http://bit.ly/economistlightbulb

A copywriter conveniently on holiday. Another billboard featuring a horde of rats that was continually rejected (and then reworked for a different client) and a savvy account man all played their part in making it happen.

We also discussed another absolute belter of a poster. PlayStation Dot-screen which again has a great back story.

BILLBOARD IMAGE: http://bit.ly/playstationdots

Paul is a rare breed of passion, craft and uncompromising creativity rarely seen these days.

Thanks again Paul. And hope everyone enjoys it.

Oh and here's the Rat idea reworked for Reed....
http://bit.ly/ratsforreed

In our first episode we speak to John Patroulis, Global Chief Creative Officer of Grey.

We discuss the billboards that John has been passionate about, from his first to his most awarded and personally rewarding.

Before joining Grey, John spent six years at BBH New York, rising to become the first-ever Creative Chairman in 2015. Under his leadership, BBH New York featured in Advertising Age's Creativity A-List and John was named in the Adweek 50. With integrated campaigns for Playstation, Axe, Google and Cole Haan, BBH New York became one of the most awarded agencies in the city, winning multiple Lions across Film, Cyber, and Integrated categories, as well as scooping the Integrated Grand Prix for Netflix "House of Cards."

Earlier in his career, John helped co-found both McCann Worldgroup's agencytwofifteen and T.A.G. in San Francisco. There he helped globally lead the Xbox Halo 3 "Believe" campaign, which became the most creatively awarded campaign of the decade, winning multiple Lions and two Grand Prix and at the time became the biggest launch in entertainment history - thanks to its innovative approach to integrated storytelling.

A globally recognised creative innovator and leader, John was named Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of Grey in August 2017. In 2019 he was Cannes Lions Jury President for Outdoor Lions where he presided over an international jury focussed on the best-in-class outdoor advertising from the previous year.

John travelled to London in December 2019 and found time to sit down with Hugh and Dan to chat about his favourite billboard work.

John was super charming, smart, funny, witty, polite, handsome…all things Dan and Hugh desperately aspire to.

He talked about his first billboard campaign for Continental Airlines, often spotting his work in the Manhattan night sky on the way home after working late, giving him the confidence he was doing the right thing, a crucial moment in any creative’s career.

A few years later the billboard campaign that properly made him famous came from a fairly humbling story. After surviving skin cancer, he was determined to warn others of the perils of the sun. By using a clever printing technique, he created an incredibly impactful campaign for SkinCancer.org, reminding people to wear sunblock on the beach.

Finally we talked about the multi-award winning campaign for Halo, the most successful gaming launch ever, which featured numerous ground-breaking ideas, including fake outdoor statues and plaques commemorating the fallen players and characters from the game.

John was also was the voiceover for the Halo case study videos, which made us realise there isn’t much he can’t do.

Thanks John for getting us up and running!

We hope you all enjoy episode 1.

Read more about it at: www.getbehindthebillboard.com

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