Has 3D Creative For Billboards Had Its 15 Minutes (or Months) Of Fame?

December 4, 2024 by Dave Haynes

I am absolutely not a motion graphics designer or any other valid description of a creative pro, so bear that in mind when I suggest the whole 3D visual illusions/anamorphic display thing has maybe had its 15 minutes – or 15 months – of fame.

There has been some really good work done by creatives around the world (most notably by Seoul’s d’strict), but one hell of a lot of what I see everyday on platforms like Linkedin is just the same tired idea of making an object like a shoe or a car or an expensive watch seemingly escape the physical boundaries of a big LED display, especially displays with 90-degree corners.

Is that little bit of visual trickery doing much these days, especially when it has been done and done and done? One of the interesting aspects of watching a lot of these videos is noting how few people are looking, though that may also owe to a lot of the videos being manipulated, with the creative added to videos. Then there’s all the fake, CGI stuff …

I know Don Draper of the classic TV series Mad Men is a fictional character, but can you imagine the response to his copy and creative teams at Sterling Cooper if they pitched: “The soup can. It will rotate on the TV screen and sort of look like it is, wait for it, coming out of the screen!!!”

He’d probably light up yet another Camel, pour a three-finer rye and tell them to get out.

Visuals should attract attention, but I am thinking a lot of seasoned advertising pros would say there is a lot more to effective campaigns than eye candy. That noted, I suspect a lot of what’s been done in the last couple of years owes as much to agencies needing to come in to client meetings with something different, and customers who’ve seen some “naked eye 3D” campaign in person or online, and asked for a version of that.

Like I said at the top, my opinion is based on observation, not direct experience. I’d love to get the views of people who do this work, or get it done for them. Use the comments or if you have a lot to say, give me a guest post to run!