Out-of-home advertising examples, from campaigns that actually ran
Most published out-of-home examples are composites: artwork dropped onto a stock photo. These are photographs of placements that ran, drawn from an archive of 3,783 documented frames covering 603 brands in 21 US markets.
Search for out-of-home examples and you get mockups. A blank billboard photographed at golden hour with artwork composited in, no traffic, no obstruction, no glare. They are useful for showing a design and useless for showing what the format does.
Everything below is a photograph of a placement that ran. Nothing has been composited.
Eight formats, eight documented placements
1. Digital screen
A screen carried through a city centre rather than fixed beside a road.
2. LED truck
The full-size format: a truck whose only job is the display it carries.
3. Vehicle wrap
No screen at all — the vehicle body is the ad surface.
4. Vehicle wrap
Multiple vehicles routed together to build coverage across a grid.
5. Food truck
A working vehicle carrying advertising as a secondary function.
6. Pedicab
Low-speed, high-dwell placement in pedestrian areas.
7. Hologram truck
A projection format used where a flat panel would be ignored.
8. In-car screen
A screen aimed at passengers inside the vehicle rather than the street.
What separates a good placement from a good design?
Three tests, and they are unforgiving:
- Two seconds. That is roughly the exposure. If the message needs longer, it is the wrong message for the medium.
- Identifiable without reading. Colour, shape and brand mark should do the work before any word is processed.
- Right place, not just a place. A brilliant execution in the wrong corridor reaches the wrong people efficiently.
Almost every "best out-of-home campaigns" listicle judges the first two and ignores the third, because placement is invisible in a photograph of the artwork. It is the part that decides whether the money worked.
What the documented set covers
Across 3,783 frames: 603 brands, 21 US markets, 2020–2026. Surfaces break down as digital 2,027, wrap 1,559, static 233, hologram 152, spectacular 29.
Counts are documented frames, not inventory — evidence that a format ran somewhere, not a claim about what is bookable now. The full set is filterable in the campaign archive.
Where to go next
For what each format is and how it is bought, see the out-of-home guide. For the formats that move and who regulates them, see transit advertising.
Frequently asked questions
- What is an example of an out-of-home ad?
- A billboard beside a motorway, a poster in a subway station, a wrapped bus, a screen on a truck. All are out-of-home: advertising encountered in public rather than on a personal device. The formats differ mainly in whether the surface stays in one place.
- What is a DOOH advertising example?
- Any out-of-home placement on a digital screen — a roadside digital billboard, a screen in a shopping centre, a taxi-top display, a screen mounted on a vehicle. The screen is what makes it DOOH rather than the location.
- Where can I see real out-of-home campaign examples?
- The archive on this site holds 3,783 photographs of campaigns that ran, covering 603 brands in 21 US markets. They are photographs of live placements rather than renders, which is unusual for published format examples.
- Why do most out-of-home examples online look fake?
- Because most of them are. The industry norm for illustrating formats is a composite: artwork dropped onto a stock photo of a blank billboard. Renders show ideal light, no obstruction and no traffic, which is exactly what a real placement does not have.
- What kinds of brands use vehicle-based out-of-home?
- The documented archive spans consumer packaged goods, financial services, software, entertainment, retail and sport. It is not restricted to any one category — the format tends to be chosen for the geography it can cover rather than for the sector.
- How should I judge an out-of-home example?
- Ask whether the copy would read in two seconds at distance, whether the brand is identifiable without reading, and whether the placement puts it where the target audience already is. Everything else is decoration.
Sources
- Out of Home Advertising Revenue Reaches Record $9.46 Billion — Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), March 17, 2026
- Campaign archive — documented placements by format and market — Digital Car Advertising, August 2026
About the author
Melih Koray works in marketing at Firefly, an out-of-home media operator running digital screens on vehicles across U.S. markets. He reviews every article on this site for factual accuracy and source attribution.