Behind The Billboard – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-77-british-airways/

Sorry for the brief delay, but It’s finally landed ✈️

The story behind the Cannes Grand Prix winning British Airways work is here.

A few weeks ago we sat with Nils and some of the BA team (Nick Stanley, Benny Everett, Ellie & Elisa and ‘Chips’ Pomfret) and discovered the story behind one of the most iconic OOH campaigns in recent times.

It was an enthralling chat. We heard how the pitch was won, how 500 executions came to be, why ‘A British Original’ was only half the story, and how - with virtually no time left - the agency turned to a tick box idea buried at the bottom of a layout pad which eventually became the all conquering idea.

It’s genuinely one of the most intriguing episodes we’ve ever done.

We also squeezed in some chat about the Windows campaign too. Bonus content!

Thank you Nils and all at Uncommon for your incredible generosity in sharing your story. It was business, leisure and much more.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-76-brian-connolly

Episode #76 features Brian Connolly.

Brian is brilliant on many levels. His billboards are amazing, some of them very close to art. The level of purity and craft is second to none.

He is also a United fan, which is also brilliant (for Hugh at least).

And on top of all that, he’s just a really decent human being who - after many years smashing it in the UK - is now smashing it stateside in New York.

We started with Eurostar and found out how the photographer went to the Eiffel Tower and shot at slightly the wrong angle … meaning a mini re-shoot to get it exactly right. These days it would no doubt be done in a matter of seconds with AI. But there’s something gritty and real about the process back then. The rail tracks merging perfectly into the Eiffel Tower is one of the iconic OOH images of the past 30 years and rightly won all the awards going.

Brian also created the Classic FM campaign which used instruments to portray power, exhilaration, peace and more in another wonderfully minimalist campaign shot by Nadav Kander that won yet more awards and plaudits. The use of white space letting the visuals sing is a lesson to all … less is more. Or as we recently coined … even less is even more.

Army … Harrods … 18-30 … Empire City Casino, the great work continued as did the chat. The ‘bust up’ fight in the Harrods designer room another (black) eye-opening story behind the work.

Thanks again Brian for sharing your work and stories. We really enjoyed it.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-67-matt-lever

We’re back folks. Dry BtB Jan is over. And we’re starting the year with a belter in Matt Lever.

Multi talented.
Multi awarded.
Funny.
Charming.
Loves a big idea.
Loves a gag.
And loves the in-house BtB flapjacks.

We spent a leisurely hour with Matt chatting billboards, from his very first one for Macallan that he bizarrely spotted while on holiday in New York…to DOH anti-smoking, Tfl, Trident Gum, Gym Box and closing on Breast Cancer Now and the perfectly pitched topical work that ran during the Women’s World Cup.

Listen out too for Matt talking about The Chat - the UK’s first drama series to play out on a messaging app group chat on WhatsApp. An audacious idea which not only garnered many awards and much PR, but more importantly has helped women cope with the disease.

Matt, thanks so much again for coming in and sharing, it was a real pleasure.

And for those after extra content, we’re also posting on the website Matt’s good copywriting doc, which is basically a reminder of what great work looks like. 

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-best-of-2023

Best of 2023

We’re nearly there folks. 2023 just about done. How was it for you?

For us it was a year of amazing guests, incredible stories, home-made cake, some lovely beards (esp our Dan’s) and best of all, broadcasting from our new home at Soho Radio. Thank you Rachel and Adrian for putting up with us. You guys are the best.

So in episode #66 @hughtodd and @mymatedan look back over the year in outdoor…any and everything ooh, billboards projections, adshels, stunts, special builds, enormous shopping bags, musical posters, massive microwaves, spider’s webs and more.

This year we’ve gone for a slightly new format. Without giving anything away, it was a battle of the billboards, each of us bringing our fave campaigns to the table in an effort to find the winner(s)of 2023. It was feisty. Some strong debate, explosive cracker pulling and scoffing mince pies (off-mic)

Who won? Who nearly won? Was it all UK? Or did a Global campaign win?

We also launched a new award. The People’s Poster, for the work that garnered the most likes right here on Instagram. Another tight contest with quite a bit of drama ;-)

Huge thanks as ever to our sponsor Talon
To Soho Radio. To all our guests who gave their time so generously. And of course thank you to all our listeners. We love the feedback, the DM’s, the requests, the very faint praise and more. Keep it coming.

And we are eternally grateful to the legend that is Jon Jones aka JJ. Quietly keeping us afloat as the loudmouths wang on into the microphones.

And also Jordan for his endless help on design and last minute mock up favours.

We hope you all have a great festive break and we’ll no doubt see you on the other side.

Take care and thanks again for all your support.

Hugh & Dan & JJ

x

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-65-dan-fisher

Podcast episode #65 features Dan Fisher, Global ECD at Ogilvy and WPP, the man behind a vast portfolio of award-winning billboards and the owner of a classy beard.

With Christmas nearly upon us, it was most apt we discussed the brilliant “I spent it on myself” Harvey Nichols campaign which on its own could’ve filled an entire episode. Listen out for how Dan had to haggle on the price of gravel to get the campaign through. A real lesson in the lengths you have to go to for great work. We also covered The Sunday Times Rich List and another great anecdote involving a dragon and a gold Lion on a yacht in Cannes. And of course we spent plenty of time on Dove and the incredible work Dan has presided over these past few years. Some of the stories behind the work are humbling and inspiring in equal measure. Thanks so much again Dan. Please come back again when you’ve snaffled a few more Grands Prix 🦁 🤓

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-64-neil-dawson

Episode #64 features Neil A Dawson.

We spent a lovely couple of hours discussing his career which has featured many iconic billboards, notably the VW surprisingly ordinary prices campaign. Classic VW. Classic DDB. Every one of them a cracker with Weddings still the most awarded print ad of all time. Neil drew us a billboard live in the studio, recreating his first ever billboard for Sanyo. We also discovered what the ‘A’ stands for, if he is related to our Dan Dawson and of course Clive Pickering, Neil’s partner for many years on many amazing campaigns.

Thanks again Neil. It was a total pleasure. 

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-63-guy-murphy

Episode #63 features our first ever planner, which seems a bit overdue considering the best planners are often the best creatives and vice versa. And we’ve haven’t got just any old planner, but one who’s been round the block with tread to spare. Guy Murphy many things: award-winning strategist, big creative thinker, agency leader, but also someone who just loves ideas and the chat about strat and tech and how they’re all joined up. Plus he’s a footy fan. All of which makes him perfect for the pod.

Guy started his career at the home of planning BMP, before moving to BBH for a successful 16 year tenure where he first met and worked with Hugh. Guy rose through the ranks to become Deputy Chairman, before heading off to Knightsbridge and the global reach of JWT. But he couldn’t shake Hugh, whom he worked with again on the Baileys pitch, winning with a strategy of lusciousness and a campaign of a thousand lips shot by @rankinarchive @rankincreative (BtB episode #17)

One of Guy’s BBH high points was for Levi’s Japan, ‘The original jeans for original people’ featuring the world’s largest photocopier - so big you could lay down on it - shipped in from Korea for the shoot. A great idea that could work on any platform, but especially well for billboards. We also discussed the Audi design / jewellery campaign which was a huge change in strategy, but still resulted in award winning iconic work.

We ended with Dan and Guy having a spod-off, debating AI and the future of OOH and Guy’s current position as Co-Founder of AdTech start-up OSSA. (OSSA is a self-service advertising platform using GenAI to help small business do digital advertising)

Thanks so much Guy for coming on. It was a a real pleasure getting behind the strategy behind the billboard 🤓

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-62-peter-souter

Rarely have we had such a talented, humble and unanimously respected guest as Peter Souter. Our teaser earlier this week had an amazing response with many waxing lyrical about his creative talent and what a great person he is. So we’re hoping this episode lives up to the hype.

We talked about any and everything. And managed to fit in some OOH along the way 🤓 The story behind the shredded ‘Industrial secrets’ poster he wrote with Paul Brazier is a belter, esp when you hear the final execution didn’t actually involve a shredder.

Peter’s first ever poster is another great tale - a piece of cardboard with a hand written message he held hopefully outside the house of the great David Abbott in an effort to get a job at AMV. We won’t say anymore but it’s a pretty audacious way to apply for a job.

We also chatted Guinness - both the Extra Cold posters and Surfer - and Peter recreated the moment of Surfer inception with a scarily accurate impression of Walter Campbell, quietly offering the thought ‘Good things come to those who wait’.

Nelson Mandela, Richard Curtis, Paul Belford and a gold fish bowl, The Vicar of Dibley, screenplays, films, advice for Hugh’s debut novel…it was a tour de force.

Thank you so much again Peter.

Total pleasure. 

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-61-shish-patel

Podcast episode #61 features one of the industry’s good guys, Shish Patel. Talented, funny, charming, thoughtful and extremely humble, it was a great hour with Shish, who regaled us with brilliant stories behind brilliant billboards.

The baby in the marmite poster is a cracker. A story that involved another DDB creative Pete Hayes and a photo of his child never intended for a Marmite billboard, but ended up being the actual shot in the ad.

There’s also the Comfort poster that appeared outside Shish’s parents shop which helped them finally understand what it was that he did for a living.

There’s more Marmite involving The Love Party and The Hate Party. Iconic work for FT. And the ‘Night drive’ campaign for VW where we discussed the entire campaign - TV print billboards - which was a seminal moment in the VW oeuvre.

Shish thanks so much for coming on and talking art and commerce in equal measure. And sampling Hugh’s madierra cake.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-60-specsavers-part-1

Podcast #60 is part 1 of our Specsavers Special, featuring the brilliant outdoor campaign from creative team Jon Morgan & Bertie Rapkin.

We explore the background to the work, how the craft played a huge part in making these such a success (kudos to GSA and Lee Bofkin from episode #59) and we hear about the (equally brilliant) executions that never made it. The busker covered in billboard paper a true delight. Please get it to run!

There’s also a very funny story involving Leeds Art University and one of the posters going up opposite the college shortly after a Specsavers brief.

Jon & Bertie thanks so much. It was a real pleasure hearing how you work. As were the pints after. Maybe that’s a new feature for the show 🤓

Look out for part 2 later in the year when we will be talking to Graham Daldry  - the man behind the original line ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’, and current Specsavers ECD Richard James, who is doing an amazing job continuing the legacy.