Edible Billboards: When Brands Hunger For Attention

Brands know that building an experience for their customers has to awaken every sense to make a memory that lasts beyond the campaign. As marketers take to the streets to let consumers participate in the experience of edible billboards, they don’t rely on complicated messaging and instead embrace a simplicity that allows the product to speak for itself.

Combining creativity, immersive activation and audience behaviour, edible billboards aren't just for talking about, they’re for tasting too.

From McDonald's to Mr Kipling, these established household names have taken big steps in stepping away from traditional advertising and instead creating a unique consumer experience. But it's not just the biggest brands embracing the creative format, as brands like Nakd took that leap to introduce to the nation its unique product and invited consumers to learn more about the brand, a brand that has now grown in popularity and success. In a time where brands are competing to stand out in the crowd, edible billboards are proving that brands of all sizes can create memorable moments and make a name for themselves.

Georgia Hamp, head of creative strategy at Grand Visual, part of outdoor specialist Talon, describes the use of edible billboard stunts as "an appetising evolution" of OOH for some brands. "They create a multi-sensory experience, inviting people to engage through sight, smell, touch and taste. The real magic lies in turning a brand message into an interaction, giving consumers the chance to actively participate and often take away a tangible reminder of the experience."

Hamp adds that while the idea might feel simple, bringing an edible billboard to life requires a lot of planning behind the scenes. "Creative, production, experiential and logistics teams all need to work in sync, from food safety and replenishment through to audience flow and on the ground delivery. The most successful executions are those where the product plays a meaningful role in the story being told."

"In each case, the creative grabs attention, but the experience is what people remember. Edible billboards blur the line between OOH and product sampling, creating a multi-sensory experience where audiences are immersed in the brand and product simultaneously, and creating a story that they can be part of.”

From a curious bite to a worldwide spectacle, these street-side stunts combine calculated craft with a little bit of absurdity. All in the hopes that the construction created at the beginning of the day hopefully ceases to exist by the end.

Here is a fantastic collection of the excellent ways brands have built a lasting connection through the senses.

Tony's Chocolonely - There Is No Such Thing As Free Chocolate

Highlighting the impact that chocolate has on cocoa farms in West Africa, and calling out the modern slavery that affects 1.56 million children, this edible billboard is a powerful statement. It sends out a message that even when you take free chocolate bar from the billboard, there is still a price to pay.

Hamp says that in this edible billboard "sampling became the storytelling mechanic itself bringing the brand's mission around inequality in the chocolate industry to life."

McDonald's - Fancy A Moment Just To Enjoy? - by Leo UK

The Southbank activation brought smiles to faces with the bespoke creation, featuring a built-in service window allows customers to grab themselves a McFlurry, made with creamy vanilla soft dairy ice cream and Oreo Toppings.

It "reimagined the drive-thru as a walk-through billboard" says Hamp, and it celebrated the brands mission to bring small moments of joy to the UK, something they've been doing for over 40 years.

Hellmann's WTF is Ranch? - by Edelman

Tackling the speculation of the British population about what ranch is and tastes like, Hellmans transformed a billboard into a sampling experience and ending the confusion of the condiment. Commuters around King’s Cross could take a chance and discover the taste of ranch and how Hellman’s is making the sauce a new staple in the UK.

By grabbing a pot of breadsticks from the billboard, passers-by could participate in a live sampling experience, and once each pot was taken from the billboard, a screen of real reactions revealed from those who had tried and tested. It created a community of new fans of the flavour whilst positioning Hellman’s, who worked with Edelman, as the trustworthy brand to turn to.

Ginster's Take A Guess How It's Cooked? - by adam&eve\TBWA

Creating the UK’s first ever ‘toaster billboard’, Ginster's created not only a tasting billboard but essentially a cooking billboard, bringing the nation's staple appliance into the spotlight.

Launching their new line of Pastry Toastie, an efficient and delicious hot lunch with zero faff, the billboard, created by adam&eve, sought to make the message clear with pasties asking the question - Take A Guess How Its Cooked? Commuters had the chance to stop by to grab a pastie and get an authentic taste test experience whilst discovering a new lunch time favourite.

Lauren Coates, creative director, adam&eve\TBWA adds: “When Ginsters launched its revolutionary Pastry Toastie, we thought the name pretty much explained itself. Apparently not. Hopefully our toaster billboard clears things up. And if there's still any confusion. It's a toastie, made of pastry, that goes in a toaster.”

Coke Zero - You Don’t Know Zero ‘Til You’ve Tried it

This campaign took the edible, or in this case drinkable, billboard and made the experience accessible for people sitting at home.

The work by Ogilvy and Mather in the USA, allowed consumers to not only physically drink but virtually drink Coke Zero, across TV and radio. Specially designed poster sites were created to dispense Coke Zero at major sports events across the country a partnership was developed with Shazam which allowed TV ads to download free drinks to mobile phones. Radio ads worked with sound only, print ads became cups and flyers became straws.

They created the most Shazamed ad ever and with 155,000 free drinks redeemed over the first weekend they also created the most successful Coke sampling campaign ever.

Virgin Media - Speedy Gonzales Cheese Billboard

Bringing the iconic Looney Tunes character of Speedy Gonzales for his advertising debut at Virgin Media, the broadband extended their TV ad campaign from DDB UK to the streets to Covent Garden with the world's first billboard made entirely out of cheese.

The billboard, created by food artist Prudence Statite, used 10 types of locally sourced cheese and took her and the team eight days to craft, spending over 100 hours in a chilled studio to preserve the artwork.

With 10 different types of cheese, the mouse's favourite food took centre stage alongside the cartoon character’s help to promote the broadband's fast services.

Open Table London Cuisines Billboard

This interactive edible map billboard gave Londoners across King’s Cross a chance to explore and celebrate the diverse range of the city’s cuisines.

The restaurant booking app created a billboard where passersby could taste their way through the city, pairing each London borough with international canapes representing the flavour the borough is most associated with.

From Turkish dolma in Lambeth to Bangladeshi biryani in Tower Hamlets, OpenTable used research on two thousand Londoners to determine each flavour of the borough, creating a taster of what London has to offer to those passing by.

Thorntons - Good Eggs... And Bunnies

To kick off the Easter season and one of the biggest confectionery moments of the year, Thorntons created the billboard of sweet dreams. The 14.5ft tall phenomenon involved 128 panels of chocolate, 72 giant chocolate eggs and 10 chocolate bunnies.

The billboard only lasted three hours after passerbys indulged in the crazy chocolate experience. Created by Thorntons master chocolatier Barry Colenso, it took 221 hours to create the edible work of art.

A spectacle of chocolate created to be enjoyed until the very last crumb, this creation brings a moment of chocolate heaven for passersby to stop and fully immersive themselves in the fabulous display.

Nakd Bar - Find Your Fave

The healthy snack bar created a billboard outside London’s Shepherd’s Bush Westfield shopping centre, letting passerbys grab and enjoy a free bar and showcasing its wide range of different flavours.

The billboard with the phrase Find Your Fave invited new consumers to discover more about the brand and sample one of the many diverse flavour combinations of the bar for the first time. One lucky passerby selected a special bar that won them a spa break.

The pop up experience made a bold statement and set up an impressive introduction to and audience, leaving 85 per cent of consumers wanting to buy the product again.

Mr Kipling - Life Is Better With Cake

From one sweet delight to another, this edible billboard takes another dream of indulgence to real life, with a billboard made entirely out of cake.

13,360 cakes portraying the classic colours of the brand, along with the most relatable message possible ‘Life Is Better With Cake’. It included its span of iconic products from french fancies, angel slices and cherry bakewells. The billboard took approximately seven hours worth of gruelling cake assembly alone, even with the help of a professional food artist like Michelle Wibowo, whose work also includes making a portrait of Prince William and Prince George out of 16,074 triangle pieces of Toblerone chocolate.

For passersby, the billboard immediately takes over the senses for the audience, with the bright sweet colours that Mr Kipling is known for along with knowing there's a slice of cake to enjoy too, making the experience feel even more special.

Carlsberg - Probably The Best Poster In The World

Capturing the world with a single beer tap, this drinkable billboard located at the Truman Brewery in London’s Brick Lane allowed passersby to help themselves with a glass of Carlsberg on the house, or on the poster itself.

Inviting the audience to help themselves to a glass and pour the brand's beer for free, created a simple product experience, with a memorable moment that defines the posters phrase ‘Probably The Best Poster In The World’.