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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-82-best-of-2024
BtB best of 2024 / Christmas special
Yes folks it’s the biggie. The one you’ve been waiting for. Behind the Billboard’s ‘Best of 2024’ with some mince pies and festive cheer thrown in for good measure. Plus some big news from our Dan.
In our humble opinion it’s been another great year for outdoor. Some brilliant work from the usual suspects, plus nice surprises from new agencies. Hopefully you’ll agree with our choices but if not feel free to comment or drop us a note.
We decided to include a few new categories this year. So alongside the traditional Poster of the year, Agency of the year and BtB Instagram of the year, we’ve included the following:
- Best baked goods
- Jon Jones award for outstanding contribution to the podcast
- Incredibly high levels of patience in producing a podcast award
- Lifetime achievement best billboard bloke of past 20 yearsAnd much much more!
A huge thank you to all of our guests for coming in and sharing the stories behind their billboards. It’s been a total pleasure chatting in the booth with you. And an even bigger thanks to you our listeners and followers - without you guys we honestly wouldn’t be doing it. Please keep liking and subscribing and spreading the good vibes.
Thanks to our sponsors for the last time ;-)
Talon Outdoor
Grand Visual
And thank you, Soho Radio - we’ll be back! -
Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-81-helen-rhodes
Episode #81 features Helen Rhodes, ECD at BBH.
We’ve been asking Helen to come on the show for ages, so we’re super chuffed she came on, not just for the stories behind her incredible portfolio of work, but also because we devoured her gift of cinnamon buns which were sensational.
The campaign for Stranger Things was enough for a whole episode - how the project came to be, the craft that went into making the fake 80’s posters and the secret pop-up experiences. Listen out for our chat on the smell of the slime in an underground corridor and whether it was authentic enough. Not a conversation we ever thought we’d have!
Then there’s this year’s most talked about campaign, Burger King’s ‘Bundles of joy’. We discussed how the work came to be part of the ‘foodfillment’ platform and the furore it created online and in the national press. And how it’s true ;-)
Then there’s the iconic BBC work - setting billboards on fire for Perfect Planet, and eerie shadows for the award-winning monster Dracula.
To top it off, a few weeks ago the Tesco ‘Icons’ campaign was launched, which has just been voted Campaign’s OOH campaign of the year. And rightly so. It’s a belter.
We covered Helen’s formative years working with Matt Lever (episode #67) and their rise to fame which eventually took them to W+K in the States.
At end of the show we chatted about tips to make great work, which Helen dedicated to ex-Watford College tutor Tony Cullingham. Helen talked with incredible fondness for TC, about his time at the BARN in BBH (still going strong) and she offered up some pearls of wisdom Tony would give students as they went off out into the creative world.
Thanks Helen for the buns and the billboards and remembering Tony.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-80-mary-wear
Episode #80 features copywriter extraordinaire Mary Wear.
Mary wrote possibly the most important endline in the history of advertising: ‘Make Poverty History’ for Comic Relief in 2004 … a line and movement that involved Richard Curtis, World Leaders and saving lives. The line was everywhere - posters, bus sides, advans, on underpants, on Bono’s arm, on the side of St Paul’s Cathedral and the coup de grâce, on a lectern in front of Nelson Mandela, who was chanting the words ‘Make Poverty History’ to thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square.
That is more than most people’s entire careers and would easily have been enough to fill the episode. The way Mary tells the story of how the line came about is wonderfully humble, involving a planner and a rather talented chap called Peter Souter.
But Mary is no one-trick pony. Her locker is full of great work.
Starving a parking meter for TfL was a lesson in never giving up, even when the model maker had ruined the idea. What could have been a catastrophe turned into a seminal award-winning piece of work.
Then there was seemingly endless more award winning work for The Economist, the Famous Grouse (a double, a small one, a quick one, a large one - they all went down well) plus an Anti-Smoking like never before. Her partnership with Damon Collins at GGT, Saatchi’s and AMV was brilliant and prolific.
We even had time for some Russian Vodka and flapjacks ;-)
Thank you Mary for coming on and sharing some of the industry’s greatest OOH work. It was a real privilege.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-79-dan-watts
Episode #79 features the charming and super-talented Dan Watts, ECD at Pablo, London.
Hugh & Dan spent a fascinating hour hearing about Dan’s eclectic career that has seen him work at some of the industry’s finest agencies - Fallon / 4Creative / Crispin Porter / Pablo - on some amazing projects.
We discussed how to fit an entire book onto a poster. How to write great ooh … in Ghana. How to ‘Skip the cow’ for Flora in one of the best new product launches of the past few years. How to launch a record label for a chocolate brand. And the toughest of the lot, how to re-launch a Great British institution - GBBO - on ‘edgy’ C4 instead of ‘cozy’ BBC.
Thanks so much Dan for coming in and sharing your stories. And good luck with everything at Pablo.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-78-andy-jex
After what seems like a lifetime away, we’re back. And who better than Andy Jex, the TBWA\London CCO to usher us into Autumn. ‘Jexy’ as he’s affectionately known, is the epitome of positivity and creativity, which is exactly what the world needs right now. Hugh & Dan enjoyed an hour in his company where many things were discussed:
FallonNando’sNando’s billboardsWhy you shouldn’t eat eggsLetters of complaint from the Egg Association about telling people not to eat eggsRich & Andy1Extra TV and postersThe greatest leaving car(d) of all timeMotherThe dried noodle kingA Scalextric world recordSaatchi’sStannersSilburnMarie Curie (where Jexy turned interviewer and asked Hugh about ‘The Extra Hour’ DOOH)Stealing staffNorth London footy rivalryJaffa Cake v FlapjackAnd most importantly of all, we talked about our Mums.Jexy, thanks so much for coming on and sharing stories, we loved it.
Hear all about it on the podcast now!
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-77-british-airways/
Sorry for the brief delay, but It’s finally landed ✈️
The story behind the Cannes Grand Prix winning British Airways work is here.
A few weeks ago we sat with Nils and some of the BA team (Nick Stanley, Benny Everett, Ellie & Elisa and ‘Chips’ Pomfret) and discovered the story behind one of the most iconic OOH campaigns in recent times.
It was an enthralling chat. We heard how the pitch was won, how 500 executions came to be, why ‘A British Original’ was only half the story, and how - with virtually no time left - the agency turned to a tick box idea buried at the bottom of a layout pad which eventually became the all conquering idea.
It’s genuinely one of the most intriguing episodes we’ve ever done.
We also squeezed in some chat about the Windows campaign too. Bonus content!
Thank you Nils and all at Uncommon for your incredible generosity in sharing your story. It was business, leisure and much more.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-76-brian-connolly
Episode #76 features Brian Connolly.
Brian is brilliant on many levels. His billboards are amazing, some of them very close to art. The level of purity and craft is second to none.
He is also a United fan, which is also brilliant (for Hugh at least).
And on top of all that, he’s just a really decent human being who - after many years smashing it in the UK - is now smashing it stateside in New York.
We started with Eurostar and found out how the photographer went to the Eiffel Tower and shot at slightly the wrong angle … meaning a mini re-shoot to get it exactly right. These days it would no doubt be done in a matter of seconds with AI. But there’s something gritty and real about the process back then. The rail tracks merging perfectly into the Eiffel Tower is one of the iconic OOH images of the past 30 years and rightly won all the awards going.
Brian also created the Classic FM campaign which used instruments to portray power, exhilaration, peace and more in another wonderfully minimalist campaign shot by Nadav Kander that won yet more awards and plaudits. The use of white space letting the visuals sing is a lesson to all … less is more. Or as we recently coined … even less is even more.
Army … Harrods … 18-30 … Empire City Casino, the great work continued as did the chat. The ‘bust up’ fight in the Harrods designer room another (black) eye-opening story behind the work.
Thanks again Brian for sharing your work and stories. We really enjoyed it.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-75-phil-and-graham
Episode #75 features Phil Cockrell & Graham Storey.
Humble, funny, gracious and massively talented, Phil & Graham have quietly created some of the most iconic billboards of the past 30 years.
In that time they have won most major awards including 4 Cannes Golds, 5 BTA arrows, 7 Campaign Poster awards and 26 D&AD in book entries.
It seems a bit of a crime that we haven’t had them on the show before. But due to various circumstances / holidays / other guests taking their slot, we’ve only just got them on.
It’s worth listening for the Nike work alone. Phil flying to the south of France to meet Eric Cantona as ‘research’ for the redemption poster is a classic ‘someone’s got to do it’ story. But it was nothing compared to how the team met Peter Hull the Paralympian who’d run the marathon and became the inspiration behind one of Nike’s greatest posters ever.
Then there was Yellow pages, Toblerone, Virgin Atlantic, The Times and more.
Every campaign oozing simplicity, craft and class.
Thanks gents for coming on and sharing your incredible history. Long may it continue.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-74-kate-congreve
We love firsts on the podcast. So episode #74 is a treat for Dan and Huge who hosted Kate Congreve our first ever producer. And not just any producer, but a producer at Mother, Campaign’s current agency of the year.
Kate shared many brilliant stories from her career to date, having worked both agency and production side.
We talked Snickers and skateboarding and how she helped put together the shoot for Paul Belford while at AMV. Shot by James Dimmock it’s a beautiful campaign with some eye-opening stories about casting.
Next was another fascinating shoot, this time for Hovis at JWT, working with brilliant creative team Claudia & Verity and photographer Kelvin Murray, managing to shoot everything in camera.
And then the Mother years, packed full of more amazing work. IKEA, Stella Artois. KFC, Uber. Four monster campaigns. Everyone an award winner, crafted to perfection.
The KFC story is particularly interesting. Try promoting a finger lickin’ brand during a time when the last thing you should do was lick your fingers. Hear how the work still ran during the pandemic.
Thanks Kate for coming in and sharing your stories. We loved it.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-73-nicola-wood
Podcast episode #73 features Nicola Wood, Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy London, winner of many shiny prizes and someone with a liking for a farty Valentine’s Day card.
Strap in folks. This is an absolute belter of an episode.
The farty card was a good start. But the story behind the Relate campaign shot by Rankin is something we’d never heard before. And we’ve heard quite a bit in the past five years.
We don’t want to reveal too much but let’s just say Nicola’s Nan features quite prominently. And some of the conversations Nicola had to have to persuade Nan to appear naked on billboards up and down the country are quite something.
We also discussed the incredible craft that went into the British Airways ‘New York We’re back’ billboard which rightly won awards on both sides of the pond. Instead of choosing the easy AI / post production route to recreate workers sat on a girder atop a New York skyscraper, Nicola and long term partner Andy Forrest decided to do it for real. Or as ‘real’ as you can as the nation was emerging from Covid. Another brilliant story involving previous guest photographer Adam Hinton (episode #18) a real life girder and a lot of wardrobing.
We also found out how gardening and sex can help reduce STI’s in the over 65’s in another raunchy campaign for Relate ‘The Hornicultural Society’.
Cannes, flapjacks, you people voting, Maaate, Araldite Glue, Tony Cullingham, Nike … we packed a lot in.
Everything Nichola does seems to have a story, an edge, a relevance to popular culture. We may need a part two soon. Maybe with special guest Nan?!
Thank you again Nicola for coming on and lighting up the studio with your incredible stories.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-72-rachel-miles
Episode #72 features Rachel Miles, BAFTA award-winning creative and Creative Director at Meanwhile Campaign Start-up Agency of the Year 2024.
Rachel not only brought stories from behind her billboards but also some sensational pies from Great North Pie which usurped Hugh’s ‘tiny flapjacks’ as Dan calls them.
Dan and Hugh discussed many things with Rachel. We covered her six year tenure at BBC Creative where, along with creative partner Michael Tsim she created many iconic campaigns, including setting a billboard on fire for the Perfect Planet series, which made the national news and won just about every award going.
We also featured the wonderfully graphic OOH campaign for This is Our BBC. And a campaign of virtual billboards that appeared in the BAFTA winning Tokyo Olympics trail. Adam Peaty, Laura Kenny, Jason Kenny et al getting the Manga treatment.We even squeezed in her first OOH work of note at Meanwhile for Lifeshare - a clothing charity - that ran during fashion week just before Christmas. And we had a brief chat on the special build for TravelSupermarket featuring a heavily stacked supermarket trolley. So good.
Rachel, thank you so much for coming on and being your wonderful charming talented self. We loved it (and the pies!).
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-71-steve-hudson
Podcast episode #71 features the super talented Steve Hudson.
Not only is Steve one of the industry’s most awarded creatives, he’s a brilliant director and also the founder of The Power of Advertising (TPOA) platform.
We covered a great deal in the hour or so together, in particular Steve’s prolific time at BBH where together with creative partner Victoria Fallon, he created iconic work for Audi, Levi’s, Polaroid, one2one, Electrolux and more.
Obv we focused on the billboards and two campaigns in particular.
For Levi’s the Original Wearers campaign shot by fashion photographer Nick Knight. A stunning campaign. Idea. Casting. Art direction. Photography. Lighting. Wardrobe. All faultless.
And for Wallis we talked about the Dressed to Kill campaign shot by another legendary snapper Bob Carlos Clark.
We heard how on a train ride to Brighton to shoot Wallis, Steve claimed advertising can be art. Bob begged to differ. Halfway through the debate Steve got a call from the V&A, telling him that one of the Levi’s posters had been accepted into the museum. You couldn’t make it up. Listen out for it. Steve tells it much better.
We also discussed Audi ‘Number One’ - one of the greatest car ads of all time - how it came to be, how it was sold to the client, and how the final line of dialogue was used by yuppie bankers as reference for cocaine.
It was a real pleasure having Steve on the show, not just to hear the stories behind his work, but to feel the passion and energy in the room and his positive outlook for the future of the industry. Thank you so much again Steve for coming on and good luck with the power of advertising, which we firmly believe in.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-70-paul-banham
Can you project the two moons from Mars into the night sky?
Can you sell over 1,000,000 lights in the world’s tallest building?
Can you build an underwater mobile phone store to sell a waterproof phone?
These are just some of the questions, answered by MullenLowe MENA CCO Paul Banham on episode #70, where we take a deep dive into life as a creative in Dubai.
It’s an absolute fascinating chat and one we’ve been wanting to have for ages. We caught up Paul on a flying visit to London.
So we sat down with tea and flapjacks and a microphone and off he went.
It was a massive eye-opener hearing about life and all things outdoors in the Middle East.
Everything is different.
The weather.
The budgets.
The ambition.But the one thing that thankfully stays the same is the desire for ideas.
And when those ideas happen, they are big.
And more often these days award-winning, with the previous mentioned campaigns picking up Cannes Lions galore.
Paul it was a total pleasure and we’re so pleased you managed to fit us in on your tour of the UK.
Looking forward to seeing you again in the summer, possibly for a second round and certainly a couple more pints than this time.
Take care and keep applying the factor 50 😎
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-69-paul-brazier
Episode #69 features Paul Brazier and his brilliant billboards. The Economist, Guinness, Think!, Aer Lingus, Wrangler, Museum of Childhood, Walkers, Cancer Research…every one of them a banger. Paul has created and presided over some of the greatest work of the past 30 years. And he’s spent the best part of these years at @amvbbdo, as Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, CCO and Chairman. During this time, Paul and his partners (@psouter and @Nick Worthington) and his creative department have amassed a mountain of awards, including an incredible 239 entries into D&AD, which must have gone some way to him becoming D&AD President in 2010. We hear Paul’s side of the ‘Industrial Secrets for Sale’ billboard for The Economist. It’s a real lesson in craft, never giving up, ending up with a jaw-dropping piece of work. Then there are the celebrity tales from the Aer Lingus campaign - Roy Keane and Vinnie Jones don’t disappoint. The Think! campaign saw Paul & Nick go on a police patrol to witness the harsh reality of how drink driving ruins lives. We also heard about Paul’s favourite posters - ‘It’s Frothy man’ and the entire portfolio of Mark Denton @mdentonesq which Paul lovingly brought to life in his own homage. Thank you Paul for your generosity in telling these amazing stories.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-68-dan-and-hugh
Episode #68 features two titans of the industry, huge characters with oodles of charm, awards and humility. Yep, we’re talking to ourselves, finding out what’s going on in each of our worlds.
We covered the following:
Watch advertising in Geneva Airport
Three dimensional screen mapping in Barcelona and New York
The delayed launch of Hugh’s novel
The billboards at the end of our streets
News of upcoming guests including Rachel Miles and the billboards hidden within her brilliant BBC Olympics promo
Digital ads on the subway
The 280ft billboard in the Oculus NYC
Flapjacks
And of course Jeremy Allen White’s pants (which Dan spotted will soon be usurped by Idris Elba’s suit)
We do hope this isn’t the equivalent of The Fly episode from Breaking Bad. Or worse still the finale of Beef. We’re just two blokes trying our best. Normal service will resume next week.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-67-matt-lever
We’re back folks. Dry BtB Jan is over. And we’re starting the year with a belter in Matt Lever.
Multi talented.
Multi awarded.
Funny.
Charming.
Loves a big idea.
Loves a gag.
And loves the in-house BtB flapjacks.We spent a leisurely hour with Matt chatting billboards, from his very first one for Macallan that he bizarrely spotted while on holiday in New York…to DOH anti-smoking, Tfl, Trident Gum, Gym Box and closing on Breast Cancer Now and the perfectly pitched topical work that ran during the Women’s World Cup.
Listen out too for Matt talking about The Chat - the UK’s first drama series to play out on a messaging app group chat on WhatsApp. An audacious idea which not only garnered many awards and much PR, but more importantly has helped women cope with the disease.
Matt, thanks so much again for coming in and sharing, it was a real pleasure.
And for those after extra content, we’re also posting on the website Matt’s good copywriting doc, which is basically a reminder of what great work looks like.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-best-of-2023
Best of 2023
We’re nearly there folks. 2023 just about done. How was it for you?
For us it was a year of amazing guests, incredible stories, home-made cake, some lovely beards (esp our Dan’s) and best of all, broadcasting from our new home at Soho Radio. Thank you Rachel and Adrian for putting up with us. You guys are the best.
So in episode #66 @hughtodd and @mymatedan look back over the year in outdoor…any and everything ooh, billboards projections, adshels, stunts, special builds, enormous shopping bags, musical posters, massive microwaves, spider’s webs and more.
This year we’ve gone for a slightly new format. Without giving anything away, it was a battle of the billboards, each of us bringing our fave campaigns to the table in an effort to find the winner(s)of 2023. It was feisty. Some strong debate, explosive cracker pulling and scoffing mince pies (off-mic)
Who won? Who nearly won? Was it all UK? Or did a Global campaign win?
We also launched a new award. The People’s Poster, for the work that garnered the most likes right here on Instagram. Another tight contest with quite a bit of drama ;-)
Huge thanks as ever to our sponsor Talon
To Soho Radio. To all our guests who gave their time so generously. And of course thank you to all our listeners. We love the feedback, the DM’s, the requests, the very faint praise and more. Keep it coming.And we are eternally grateful to the legend that is Jon Jones aka JJ. Quietly keeping us afloat as the loudmouths wang on into the microphones.
And also Jordan for his endless help on design and last minute mock up favours.
We hope you all have a great festive break and we’ll no doubt see you on the other side.
Take care and thanks again for all your support.
Hugh & Dan & JJ
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-65-dan-fisher
Podcast episode #65 features Dan Fisher, Global ECD at Ogilvy and WPP, the man behind a vast portfolio of award-winning billboards and the owner of a classy beard.
With Christmas nearly upon us, it was most apt we discussed the brilliant “I spent it on myself” Harvey Nichols campaign which on its own could’ve filled an entire episode. Listen out for how Dan had to haggle on the price of gravel to get the campaign through. A real lesson in the lengths you have to go to for great work. We also covered The Sunday Times Rich List and another great anecdote involving a dragon and a gold Lion on a yacht in Cannes. And of course we spent plenty of time on Dove and the incredible work Dan has presided over these past few years. Some of the stories behind the work are humbling and inspiring in equal measure. Thanks so much again Dan. Please come back again when you’ve snaffled a few more Grands Prix 🦁 🤓
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-64-neil-dawson
Episode #64 features Neil A Dawson.
We spent a lovely couple of hours discussing his career which has featured many iconic billboards, notably the VW surprisingly ordinary prices campaign. Classic VW. Classic DDB. Every one of them a cracker with Weddings still the most awarded print ad of all time. Neil drew us a billboard live in the studio, recreating his first ever billboard for Sanyo. We also discovered what the ‘A’ stands for, if he is related to our Dan Dawson and of course Clive Pickering, Neil’s partner for many years on many amazing campaigns.
Thanks again Neil. It was a total pleasure.
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Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-63-guy-murphy
Episode #63 features our first ever planner, which seems a bit overdue considering the best planners are often the best creatives and vice versa. And we’ve haven’t got just any old planner, but one who’s been round the block with tread to spare. Guy Murphy many things: award-winning strategist, big creative thinker, agency leader, but also someone who just loves ideas and the chat about strat and tech and how they’re all joined up. Plus he’s a footy fan. All of which makes him perfect for the pod.
Guy started his career at the home of planning BMP, before moving to BBH for a successful 16 year tenure where he first met and worked with Hugh. Guy rose through the ranks to become Deputy Chairman, before heading off to Knightsbridge and the global reach of JWT. But he couldn’t shake Hugh, whom he worked with again on the Baileys pitch, winning with a strategy of lusciousness and a campaign of a thousand lips shot by @rankinarchive @rankincreative (BtB episode #17)
One of Guy’s BBH high points was for Levi’s Japan, ‘The original jeans for original people’ featuring the world’s largest photocopier - so big you could lay down on it - shipped in from Korea for the shoot. A great idea that could work on any platform, but especially well for billboards. We also discussed the Audi design / jewellery campaign which was a huge change in strategy, but still resulted in award winning iconic work.
We ended with Dan and Guy having a spod-off, debating AI and the future of OOH and Guy’s current position as Co-Founder of AdTech start-up OSSA. (OSSA is a self-service advertising platform using GenAI to help small business do digital advertising)
Thanks so much Guy for coming on. It was a a real pleasure getting behind the strategy behind the billboard 🤓
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