The Best Outdoor Campaign Ever

My friend Mark was recently interviewed by a business magazine in Vancouver. The subject was about different ways of using visual branding in outdoor advertising. Mark asked me about some of my favorite outdoor campaigns and the one I kept on coming back to just for its sheer longevity of brilliance is The Economist. Even though outdoor is the anchor for the campaign, they’ve done fabulous TV/cinema spots and blindingly great print. At the heart of all of it is the beautifully simple branding device of the red color which is sometime dominant (as in outdoor) or a subtle accent. Most of all, I love the fact that the advertising isn’t designed for everyone to get or enjoy. If you do get it, you should probably be reading The Economist, if you don’t you probably shouldn’t even be reading this blog. Here’s the most recent stuff, courtesy of Ben Kay in London and here’s a historical perspective of all the greatest work. I challenge anyone to come up with a better example of outdoor campaign brilliance.