Phantom and The Boys blast themselves onto global OOH awards shortlist

The traffic-stopping special build for Amazon Prime’s season 3 launch of The Boys has won global recognition at the 2023 World Out Of Home (WOOH) awards.

The creative, which featured a giant visage of Karl Urban shooting ‘laser beams’ from his eyes into a strategically placed car wreck on Newton Road, garnered coverage around the world. It has now made it onto the six-strong WOOH shortlist for best Creative Classic OOH campaign.

The creative was a collaboration between Phantom Billstickers and MBCS, along with media agencies Billie Media and Rufus powered by Initiative.

As well as reaching tens of thousands of viewers passing by the site each day, The Boys campaign ignited attention around the world. Fans organically shared content to the global Reddit thread r/TheBoys (545K members), and the site was digitally recreated within the world of Grand Theft Auto: Online in Brazil.

Says Richard Saturley, CMO, WOOH: “We have had more entries than ever for the Digital and Classic Creative Awards and the quality has never been higher. Especially pleasing is that entries came from all over the world and that’s reflected in the two excellent shortlists.”

Phantom CEO Robin McDonnell says the company is “quietly thrilled” by the way a bold client and some no-holds-barred brainstorming led to a world-class solution: “The Boys launch shows what’s possible when everything comes together,” McDonnell says. “New Zealand agencies and marketers have shown themselves unafraid to stretch the possibility of the medium.

“Challenge us! We’ve got a passion for posters and the practical capability to deliver off-the-wall ideas – right down to sourcing and placing a wrecked car.

“Phantom has some of Aotearoa’s top sites, just waiting for you to populate them with the next global award-winning idea.”

 The WOOH award winners will be named during the organisation’s annual Congress, to be held at Lisbon on 7-9 June 2023.