Specsavers campaign on the largest OOH billboard in the Southern Hemisphere

The Specsavers marketing team had a ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ moment due to poor eyesight when creating and dispatching the artwork for the largest out-of-home billboard in the Southern Hemisphere.

Created by Specsavers Creative, the billboard, unveiled this week, features a striking creative “mistake” that’s impossible to miss. Only a fraction of the iconic ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ tagline and half of the brand’s green and white ellipse logo are visible on oOh!media’s iconic Sydney Glebe Island Silos. The site is more than 1,000 square metres and sits on top of 15 heritage-listed silos.

By making an eyesight blunder on the largest Out of Home billboard in the Southern Hemisphere, Anri McHugh, Head of Awareness and Consideration at Specsavers, said: “We know that attention is the new currency, and nothing cuts through like a well-timed mistake — especially when it’s on a scale this big. By owning our mistakes in our unique tone of voice, we’re not just driving brand fame, we’re reminding Australians that mistakes are easily made if your eyesight is failing, which is a good reminder to Australians of all ages to look after their eye health.”

The new billboard follows the success of previous OOH campaigns featuring the well-known brand tagline, which have seen media vendors “install” the Specsavers ads upside down on bus sides and digital in-centre panels, or “dispatch” the wrong ‘welcome to’ destination creative to key airports across Australia. These executions received a lot of attention from the public, who were eager to notify the brand of the intentionally staged slip-ups.

“We love when brands embrace a bit of cheeky creativity, and Specsavers have done just that. Turning a ‘mistake’ into a giant punchline on the biggest canvas in the Southern Hemisphere is both bold and brilliantly on-brand. This campaign is a perfect reminder that Out of Home is at its best when it captures attention and sparks conversation,” said Josh Gurgiel, Head of POLY.  

“Specsavers is defining and elevating the gold standard for Out-of-Home executions across the industry. I love executing campaigns of this calibre, especially with a visionary brand that demonstrates such a courageous willingness to innovate and strategically leverage Australia’s most iconic platform. This bold approach not only captures widespread attention but also sets a new benchmark for impactful brand engagement,” adds Remona Salem, Group Director at EssenceMediacom.

The billboard can be viewed until 23 October 2025.