Why new-age brands are making billboards for social media

New Delhi: Are billboards now more about going viral online than catching eyes outdoors? And if brands are paying twice—once for the billboard and again to amplify it on social media—is this a smart strategy or just expensive digital bait?

It’s not just about being seen on the road anymore—it’s about becoming a conversation over chai, a meme on X (formerly Twitter), or a carousel post on LinkedIn where marketing heads debate ‘the future of advertising, according to Mohit Ghate, Co-founder at Wit & Chai.

“The Zepto OOH ad that reads ‘Dabba mein dabba, dabbe mein aloo, ab 10-minute delivery Saharanpur mein chalu’ isn’t just a roadside ad; it’s a tweet that happens to be 20 feet tall. And that’s the game today—bite-sized, relatable, and hyper-localised content that speaks your lingo before you even realise it’s an ad,” he said.

We live in a world where attention spans are shorter than a 10-second Instagram story. If an ad doesn’t hook on the first glance, it’s lost. That’s why modern OOH is built for the ‘pause-and-share’ economy, as per Ghate. 

Sharing his perspective on why brands are investing heavily to make their OOH campaigns go viral on social media, Abhik Santara, Director & CEO of Atom Network, said, “Two words—stature and legitimacy.”

He explained, “Digital ads are free, so they don't show as much intent. Having even just one out-of-home (OOH) ad and using it to create a social media conversation can make the brand seem bigger. 

Providing more perspective on the subject, Harshit Sharma, Founding Member and Senior Brand Strategist at Youngun, said, “Many brands are now designing billboards with a focus on social media, which can undermine the core purpose of out-of-home (OOH) advertising. The key to successfully targeting both outdoor audiences and social media users lies in finding a common ground that appeals to both. 

The content should be easily consumable for people viewing it outdoors while also being engaging and shareable on social media. As this shift is relatively new, it will take time for brands to master the balance.”

Vikas Nowal, CEO at Interspace Communications, said that the collaboration of OOH and social media helps increase campaign reach and boosts engagement, which holds true for any good content when amplified across channels. 

For the brands, it helps them to optimise and maximise ROI by making static ads shareable. It is not replicating costs but using one medium to drive up engagement in another. It makes OOH more relevant for brands as they see their messaging on OOH driving engagement in digital with better brand recall.”

According to Nowal, a great example of a hybrid campaign it executed is the 'PVMA campaign' for PUMA India. This campaign involved temporarily rebranding PUMA to "PVMA" in a visually striking move, which was further amplified on social media. This demonstrates how a well-executed OOH campaign can serve as compelling content for social media.”

Resounding Nowal’s thoughts, Ghate (Wit and Chai) said, “Aaj kal billboards sirf raste ke liye nahi, Reels ke liye bhi bane hain.”

He feels that modern billboards are made to ‘go viral in 500 shares and brands are playing a high-stakes game of eyeball relay—catch them on the road, then sprint to social media for the real finish line.

But here’s the #Realtalk—why spend crores on OOH just to end up on Instagram anyway? 

Ghate believes that billboards are no longer just boards; they are baits.

Elaborating on his stance, he said, “Now, while social media amplifies OOH, it also sets the rules. The billboard isn’t the final destination; it’s the first touchpoint in a multi-channel relay race. And if your ad doesn’t make someone say, ‘Bro, did you see this?’ and take a screenshot, was it even worth the hoarding space?”

Even Sharma (Youngun) maintains that investing in both mediums is not necessary, but it is still better to have both routes because, after COVID, a lot of customers now work from home and don’t go out as much. To reach a larger audience, taking your billboards on social media is a good way to bring in traction.

“The optimal advertising strategy depends on the brand's life stage. For a brand with high awareness, the digital medium alone can serve as an effective reminder. However, if the key performance indicators (KPIs) are reach and impact, a combination of both digital and out-of-home (OOH) mediums may be more prudent,” Santara resolved.

Diving deeper into the story, the question that came to the forefront was how brands can balance the need for attention-grabbing outdoor advertisements with the trend of creating content that sparks online conversations.

Sharing his thoughts, Nowal said, “OOH is supposed to be ‘big, bold, and beautiful’ with messaging that is not supposed to be more than six or seven words. So, finding harmony between attention-grabbing messaging that translates into online interaction with the brand must be achieved. 

OOH advertising must possess compelling messages that encourage social sharing by design. The solution is to create OOH messaging that not only commands instant attention but also drives easily to digital conversation, offering one cross-device brand experience with maximum physical visibility and online activity.”

In the words of Ghate (Wit and Chai), today’s billboard is not just a flex—it’s an engagement hack. And if done right, it’s not just the road traffic that stops; it’s the scrolling too.  

However, he added, “But in the chase of virality, sometimes brands get carried away and forget the secret sauce, which is that virality may be the new visibility. But let’s not forget that the best ads don’t just make it to social media; they make it to memory. And that’s the real ROI.”