A billboard is one of the largest canvases in the public realm, yet outdoor advertising often behaves as though it deserves attention simply because it exists in shared space. In reality, the creative choices made by the agency team determine whether it clutters the visual landscape or contributes meaningfully to it.

In South Africa, and particularly in financial services, advertising is often dominated by dense messaging, stock photography and a certain corporate sameness. The billboard streetscape reflects this. When we began working on RMB's new brand platform and campaign, we saw an opportunity to challenge that convention.

The campaign proposition is simple: great ideas rarely exist in isolation. They grow in the company of other people, other ideas and different perspectives. The platform of 'Ideas Love Company' shaped not only the writing and art direction of the campaign, but also how it would live in the world.

RMB has long been a national patron of the arts, supporting the talent that shapes South Africa’s cultural landscape. Extending this support into its advertising felt like a natural progression, using the opportunity to turn billboards across the country into a kind of public gallery.

Instead of taking a traditional approach with conventional corporate imagery, we collaborated with South African artist, Koos Groenewald, to create a series of 50 distinctive, hand-drawn illustrations. Working with Koos was not just an aesthetic choice, but a cultural one. Allowing his distinct voice to shape the campaign ensured the work felt authentic to both the brand and the intent of the Ideas Love Company platform.

Inspired by the editorial cartoons of publications like The New Yorker, the visual language rewards attention rather than demanding it. Each illustration is paired with a standout headline, creating a playful world of visual storytelling that appeals to the curiosity of the passer-by. This allowed the campaign to function more like a series of public artworks than traditional billboards.

In outdoor spaces where visual clutter has become the norm, restraint can be a powerful creative decision. This campaign sits lightly within its environment. A person walking a balloon dog to accompany the line, "Think Out the Park", for example, transforms a fleeting moment of attention into something quietly contemplative.

Across large-format static sites and animated digital placements, the campaign introduced small moments of whimsy into the everyday. A drive home in traffic might reveal a briefcase-carrying astronaut floating away or a row of ducks swimming by.

Each piece was carefully curated, decision by decision, to create a gentle antidote to the monotony of the daily commute and reimagine what marketing can look like in public space.

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*Image courtesy of contributor