Situation:

The Osborne bull is probably Spain’s most emblematic image. There are 91 billboards on roads and highways across the country and since Congress and the Supreme Court awarded it the status of being of cultural and artistic interest, they are the only billboards to have survived legislation banning roadside advertising.

Brief:

Announce the launch of The Lion King’s live action version, one of the franchise’s most iconic productions.

Objectives:

Generate maximum awareness and impact and mobilise the target audience to go to the cinema to watch the film.

Our target audience embraced a very broad spectrum, from teenagers to families. We placed The Lion King billboard on the M-40, one of Madrid’s main access routes, from mid-July to mid-August, when everybody was taking to the roads en route to their summer holiday destinations. This one single billboard was seen by 4 million people, but most importantly, many of these became social and media advocates, amplifying the message and taking it to all four corners of the country.

We looked for locations on Madrid's major highways and on private premises, since these were the only ones where we could place our billboard. Finding the right location was only part of the challenge for an installation of such magnitude. It was also essential for the location’s visibility from the road to be as spectacular as the famous Osborne bulls themselves are. We wanted to convey the idea of substitution, of usurpation even, seizing one icon and replacing it with another. After much searching, we finally found the perfect place: a hill in a clearing next to a road with heavy traffic. The billboard was built in a day. And it was there for a month.

The film grossed over 35M euros at the box office and was watched by more than 6 million cinemagoers. This was enough to crown it Spain’s blockbuster film of the year.

If The Lion King was reigning supreme at the cinema, it was also doing really well out on the street. 99% of the content posted by people on social networks was positive. More than 65 media outlets echoed the campaign, among them Spain’s major TV networks, radio stations and digital press. Some audio-visual media even gave us several minutes of prime time coverage.