Raising the Creative Temperature —OOH OF THE MONTH—July

OOH of the Month July 2025 

Each month in this feature, we’ve been spotlighting individual Out Of Home ads that have the “OOH factor”. They stand out on one or other of System1’s Test Your Ad Out Of Home metrics and carry creative lessons for other brands wanting to make excellent poster or digital billboard ads.

Summer is here and the sweltering heat is particularly suited for this month’s crop of Out Of Home ads. From holiday romances to tasty treats to big Summer events, they’re all designed for the season in which outdoor ads can really shine. But making a great Out Of Home ad isn’t easy – it’s rare we see a poster sweep our measures and get across the board high scores, and these Summer ads tend to excel in particular areas. But as long as creatives are trying to entertain, provoke or stick in the mind of audiences, we’ll see ads like these which hit at least one target.

Perfect beach reading, with or without a pizza to hand

This month’s most provocative ad on several levels comes from Polaroid, which is taking no prisoners as it looks to relaunch the brand and meet the challenge of generative AI. Polaroid has always been about the link between a real moment and an instant, physical memento of that moment, which is something AI tools can never match. And it’s leaning in hard to that unique element, with an ad that captures a passionate clinch on a beach with the caption “A.I. Can’t Generate Sand Between Your Toes”

Polaroid have made an ad designed to get a reaction and that’s exactly what it does. Some viewers love the authenticity, some feel attacked by the anti-AI stance or dislike the subject matter, but almost all of them know who the ad is for. Polaroid gets a 91% Brand Fluency rating, well above the US outdoor average and impressive for a brand which has had a low profile in the digital era.

Our second ad, from Walker’s Shortbread, is a less daring piece of work but very elegantly done. Timed for Wimbledon, it sees tennis star Andy Murray holding up a piece of shortbread with the caption “A Wee Bit Of Scotland That’s Come A Long Way”. It’s a simple ad which works so well because of its clear design and strong use of colour – everything except the biscuit and brand logo is in black and white, which draws the viewer’s attention immediately to the tasty product. That helps Walkers keep the audience happy and get a 3.8-Star Rating for long-term effectiveness, our highest score this month and well above the UK norm.

Over in Canada, there’s another great Summer tradition, the Calgary Stampede, and McDonald’s has got in on the action with a “Happy Stampeding” billboard that’s a close-up on a cowboy hat. Of course, being McDonalds, there’s more to it than that. The brand has a great tradition of creating ads where a second glance reveals a link to the product or one of the brand’s powerful distinctive assets. Here, the colors on the hat remind viewers of a burger bun and the layers of sauce and salad in a Big Mac.

For a short-run campaign tied to a specific event, the Test Your Ad metric brands need to watch out for is Spike Rating, which predicts short-term sales boosts. And this is where McDonalds performs well, with a good rating that lands firmly above the category norm.

Finally, we go to Greece and back to Britain with two campaigns which take very different approaches to the problem of how you keep yourself fed on a Summer break. They’re both based on very striking, memorable images, but those images couldn’t be further apart in tone. In Greece, Domino’s Pizza shows us a middle-aged holiday maker roasting on a beach in Mykonos. In the man’s mirrored sunglasses we see a smiling pizza delivery driver – the brand delivers everywhere on the island.

It’s a funny, unexpected and memorable ad. It’s fair to say the image of our hungry holidaymaker isn’t loved by every viewer but the ad gets the Domino’s brand across immediately, with a Fast Fluency score for quick recognition that’s well above the European average

Fortnum & Mason, meanwhile, have quite a different angle on a holiday treat. They’ve recruited award winning artist and photographer Martin Parr to take unusual images of the British Summer, like this one of an elegant Black hand holding up a very lurid blue ice cream cone. The contrast between the blue ice cream and the green lawns behind is vaguely surreal and makes the ad stand out immediately, while still capturing some of the essence of the British summer. Audiences responded warmly to the poster, giving it a 3.3-Star Rating firmly above the UK outdoor norm.

As audiences around the world take to the roads, streets and beaches for Summer breaks, advertisers have a chance to make memorable, creative images that suit the season. These five ads have the OOH Factor because they’re all trying to do something a little different with summer imagery and ideas. Even when they don’t please everyone, they’re raising the creative temperature.

If you’d like to see more examples of Out Of Home ads which get creativity right across the various measures System1 track, you should take a look at our own contribution to Summer 2025, the Out Of Home study we’ve published in partnership with JCDecaux. Presented at Cannes this year, it’s a look at the ingredients of a successful outdoor ad, with some of the best modern examples to learn from. Perfect beach reading, with or without a pizza to hand.

Credits (brand and agency):
Polaroid + Polaroid Creative Studio
Walker’s Shortbread + New Commercial Arts
McDonald’s + Cossette Vancouver
Domino’s Pizza + The Newtons Laboratory
Fortnum & Mason + Otherway + Martin Parr (photographer)

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