• New Billboards by Global brand launched, combining the scale of Global’s newly expanded 48-sheet network – now the largest in the UK – with market-leading capabilities to create and plan campaigns as well as prove effectiveness and impact through Global:IQ
  • Billboards by Global is No.1 for Scale, more than doubling Global’s digital 48-sheet footprint to over 600 sites, combined with classic billboards to bring more than 4,500 panels in total to advertisers
  • No.1 for Data and Outcomes, with the launch today of new, ground-breaking effectiveness tools, Outcomes and Access All Audiences for Billboards, both powered by Global:IQ
  • No.1 for Creativity, powered by Global’s in-house creative team, industry partnerships and today’s launch of an impactful, UK-wide brand marketing campaign created by Bird London

Global, the Media & Entertainment group, today announced the launch of Billboards by Global, built around the UK’s biggest 48-sheet footprint and combining scale, creativity, and data and measurement tools, to help advertisers unlock the full brand-building power of billboards.

The Billboards by Global brand is designed to help advertisers rethink the role billboards can play in modern media plans, offering creativity, planning and proof of effectiveness with digital precision.

As part of the launch, Global ran a full-funnel Outcomes measurement pilot for 45 key advertisers. Global’s Insight, Data and Outcomes team modelled three years of media and outcomes data including each brand’s recent outdoor campaigns, and found that where billboards were included in a campaign, there was an average 2.4x uplift in brand-building impact compared to when they were absent from the media plan.

Mark Singleton, CMO at Holland & Barrett, which took part in the pilot said: “I’m really quite excited by the new Global Outcomes Measurement Tool. It doesn’t just look at the bottom line impact in terms of return on investment. It also helps you to understand how that’s shifting persuasion…driving towards purchase. We want to use this as part of our full measurement tool, because it adds an extra layer of understanding.”

Billboards do something unique. They help brands show up in a way that feels immediate, public and powerful. And in a world where attention is harder than ever to earn, that has never mattered more.

Simon Pitts, Group Chief Executive Officer at Global

We want to put fresh momentum behind a format we passionately believe in. Without doubt, billboards are one of the most iconic canvases in advertising. We recognise there is a growing demand from brands looking for simple, high-impact ways to reach mass audiences.

With Billboards by Global, we’re combining the UK’s biggest billboard network with brilliant creative support, award-winning measurement and smart data to help advertisers deliver fantastic campaigns and crucially – prove the results. Billboards by Global unlocks brand building at scale across the whole of the UK.

Mike Gordon, Chief Commercial Officer at Global

Global has also unveiled a new trade marketing campaign, created by Bird London, designed to show what great billboard advertising can do. Built around a distinctive graphic device inspired by the Global logo, the creative turns a core brand asset into the idea itself, stretching it across a series of playful, confident executions spanning multiple categories. The campaign reflects a simple principle at the heart of great billboard advertising: the best billboards do two jobs at once. They make a brand easy to recognise, and impossible to ignore. In a medium where audiences often have only a few seconds to engage, distinctive brand assets become the creative idea, rather than a signature added at the end.

The Billboards by Global network is powered by three core pillars:

No.1 for Scale.

Billboards by Global offers more than 4,500 sites, offering quality reach in a trusted, environmentally conscious medium. From major cities to regional communities, the network reaches 43 million+ people every fortnight, a huge asset in a fragmented media landscape, where performance spend and digital platforms are both under increased scrutiny.

No.1 for Creativity.

Billboards help brands show up in a way that is public, powerful and unforgettable. Global‘s in-house creative team, drawn from top creative agencies, works with brands and agencies to design campaigns built specifically for the billboard canvas. Global is committed to supporting and championing the creative industry, expanding its long-standing partnership with D&AD to include sponsorship of the Yellow Pencil for the Outdoor Category and supporting the ‘Creativity: Dead or Alive?’ D&AD x Uncommon campaign.

No.1 for Data and Outcomes.

New industry-leading tools, Access All Audiences (AAA) for Billboards, and Outcomes, both powered by Global:IQ.

Global:IQ is Global’s award-winning insight and data platform, while Access All Audiences (AAA) is powered by datasets exclusive to Global, allowing advertisers to identify audiences, optimise locations and plan billboard campaigns with far greater precision. Global’s Outcomes measurement modelling enables advertisers to understand the role outdoor advertising plays alongside other channels in delivering business results, helping planners confidently integrate billboards into modern media strategies.

For more information about Billboards by Global, visit our new dedicated website https://advertise.global.com and follow @outdoorbyglobal on Instagram.

Note to editors:

Global now operates the UK’s biggest 48-sheet billboard estate, with more than 4,500 48-sheet frames nationwide. The network delivers a market-leading fortnightly reach of 43.1 million people, equivalent to 77.5% of the UK population, and over 740 million impacts.

 

Global marketing campaign credits:

  • Director, Commercial Marketing: Sophie Lavender
  • Head of Outdoor Product Marketing: Christy Johnston
  • Outdoor Marketing Manager: Teresa Viana
  • Creative Directors: Mark Potts, Angela Edwards 

Creative agency credits – BIRD London:

  • Founder and Strategy Partner: Steve Parker
  • Client Partner: Jamie Roston
  • Account Manager: Gabrielle Raw-Rees
  • Head of Design & Creative Director: Rich Kennedy
  • Producer: Lisa-Marie Dickinson, The Art Buying Company
  • Photographer: Pascal Schonlau, Common Era
  • Set Designer: Matt Huddleston
  • BTS Director: Mark Gostick
  • Casting Director: Heather March
  • Retouching: Neon Beast
  • Retoucher: Jake Hickman
  • CGI Production: PICS
  • Producer: Chris Green
  • CGI Director: Lewis Rowe
  • CGI Artist: Dan Harrington