Billboard sizes range from the 1200mm x 18mm posters that you see at bus shelters to large 3m x 12m 96 sheet billboards on the side of the road.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is all around us, practically as soon as we step out of the front door. But what billboard sizes are available, and which would be best for your campaign? Here’s a quick guide to some of the most popular billboard and poster sizes for out-of-home advertising.

Billboard Sizes and Poster Sizes

6-sheets – 1.8m x 1.2m

6-sheet posters measure 1.8m x 1.2m and are often seen at bus stops, railway stations, and shopping malls. They get up close and personal with consumers and are proven to influence buying decisions. A 2014 study showed that six-sheets doubled brand recall and boosted purchase intent by 47%.

A standout use of 6-sheets came from Lego who commissioned artists to create posters which blended with their environment, giving the appearance of a world made out of their iconic plastic bricks.

48-sheets – 20ft x 10ft

The classic 48-sheet billboard is 20ft x 10ft. This format makes a big statement and gets your message across a sizeable distance. It is usually to be found at roadsides. Regular rail users will spend plenty of time staring at these across the tracks as they await the next train.

96-sheets – 3m x 12m

96-sheet billboards are 3m x 12m, basically two 48-sheets placed side by side. In terms of brand visibility, this is a big-hitter. Great for getting your message to car-bound commuters. Given that British motorists spend the equivalent of two days a year stuck at red lights, the benefits of roadside billboard advertising should be obvious.

96-sheets are also to be found in the London Underground where an established mouthwash brand was able to persuade over half of those exposed to their 96-sheet ads to search for their product in shops.

Phone box advertising

The insides of these relics from a simpler, less mobile, time may get less footfall than ever, but plenty of people still walk by them. With around 67,000 dotted around the UK, the humble phone box is often a rather undervalued advertising site. It’s used to great effect by fast food brands McDonalds and KFC, who take advantage of the proximity of phone boxes to their sites.

There are two hightech updates of the phone box coming soon with Primesight bringing “Links” totems that offer free high speed internet and digital advertising and access to free national phone calls from a touchscreen on the side. Read more here.

Clearchannel have also announced that they’re replacing up to 3500 phone boxes across the country with digital screen based phone boxes. Read more here.

Digital screens

Pretty much all print billboards and posters now have a digital equivalent – the industry calls it DOOH (Digital Out-of-home).

DOOH tends to be built in the busiest areas, so you’re already on the road to large-scale exposure. What’s more, reduced costs (no printer’s bills) and shorter lead times (how long does it take to export a jpg?) have an obvious appeal.

On top of that, location-specific data can be used to tailor a single campaign to multiple geographical areas and lend a greater dynamism to your campaigns.

Find out more about DOOH advertising shapes and sizes in our overview here.

Find out more about Billboard advertising

From posters on the sides of bus stops and billboards at the roadside, to digital screens in shopping malls and train station thoroughfares… in nearly every nook and cranny of the urban and suburban environment we find OOH.

Billboards and posters have stood the test of time and are remarkably flexible for such often-imposing objects.

And it’s a burgeoning sector. Out-of-home was set to grow by nearly 5% in 2016, with DOOH accounting for over a third of all spending in the sector.

Get in touch with us today for more advice about which billboard sizes would best suit your campaign.