One Size Does Not Fit All: See How Your Ad Really Looks Across Five Billboard Types

By Ankur Mehra, Head of Marketplace, Moving Walls Market

Launching a digital campaign on Facebook or Google is simple. You upload an image and it looks almost the same on every screen.

Out of Home advertising works very differently.

In OOH, context shapes everything.

A design that looks good on a laptop may be unreadable to a driver moving at high speed. At the same time, a bold highway visual may feel empty to someone standing still on an escalator for twenty seconds. The same creative behaves very differently depending on where it appears.

If you are using a selfserve platform like Moving Walls Market, you now have access to screens across highways, malls, airports and offices. Access alone is not the advantage. Confidence in how your message appears in each environment is what matters.

To help brands and agencies design with that confidence, the Moving Walls Market team created free Canva mockup templates that allow you to preview your ad across five important Digital OOH screen types before your campaign goes live. It is a simple step, but one that changes how people think about creativity in Out of Home.

Consider the highway billboard. Viewers are moving fast and attention lasts only a few seconds. If a message cannot be read instantly, it is already lost. Headlines need to be large, contrast needs to be strong and the idea must land in a blink. Most highway mistakes come from trying to say too much when speed demands restraint.

Now shift that same creative into a busy streetside setting. Here the problem is not speed but competition. Your ad is surrounded by traffic lights, shop signs, people and motion. If the background blends into the city, the brand disappears. What works here is clarity of subject and colour that separates the message from visual noise.

Move indoors to a mall escalator and behaviour changes again. Shoppers slow down. They stand, they look, and they have time. This is where detail starts to work. A stronger call to action makes sense. Directions, offers and product information suddenly become useful instead of distracting because the audience is already in a buying mindset.

Airports create another shift. People wait. They look for something to occupy the mind between check in, security, boarding and baggage. Screens are large and sharp, and anything that looks low quality immediately feels out of place. Creative here benefits from polish and relevance to travelers, whether they are flying for work or leisure.

Then there is the elevator. The most overlooked screen type. People stand inches away for twenty to thirty seconds. At that distance, aggressive messaging feels uncomfortable and poor resolution becomes obvious. But it is also the place where you can tell a slightly longer story, use smaller type and create a calmer, more considered presence.

What all of this shows is simple. There is no such thing as one perfect billboard design. There is only design that respects the environment it lives in.

Ready to see it for real?

Don’t design in a vacuum. A campaign that looks “okay” in Canva can look “amazing” once you see it in the right context—or it can reveal a flaw you need to fix before you spend your budget. Try it for yourself (it’s free!)

How to use the mockups:

1. Create or login to Canva (You can easily sign up with your Gmail or social media accounts)
2. Click here to open the Moving Walls Market templates in Canva.
3. Upload your ad creative.
4. Drag and drop it into the Highway, Mall, or Elevator frames.
5. Tweaks: Adjust your font size or colors instantly based on the environment.

Don’t have an ad creative yet? No issues! Click below to use our pre-made templates. You can change color and texts based on your requirements. On top of that, you can also explore more design templates in Canva itself.

1. Highway Billboard (Car Traffic Only)
2. The Busy Streetside (Car & Foot Traffic)
3. The Mall Escalator
4. The Airport Screen
5. The Elevator Screen

Need more ideas on how you can create a perfect creative for your campaign? Check out our recent article on “How to design billboard that actually converts”

Once you see your brand in context, the next step becomes easier. Moving Walls Market lets you browse screens, choose dates, upload creative and launch campaigns directly without long sales processes. In a few minutes, what started as a mockup can become a live Out of Home campaign.

Out of Home works best when creatives are not designed in isolation. It works when design begins with the environment, the audience and the moment they encounter your message. One size never fits all. Context always decides.

Liked the mockup? Launch your OOH campaign in 15 minutes.

Now that you’ve seen how good your brand looks on a billboard, it’s time to put it there for real.

You don’t need to call a sales rep or wait weeks for a quote. Moving Walls Market is the Airbnb of billboards—completely self-serve and open 24/7.

• Browse Inventory: Find screens in malls, highways, or airports near you.
• Instant Booking: Select your dates and upload your ad creative.
• Go Live: You can book and pay for your campaign in under 15 minutes.