Going Global — How Landmark Outdoor Advertising Launches Brands Overseas
Expanding a brand into new markets is hard. You’re unknown, you have no local media history, and your audience has no reason to trust you. More and more brands — especially from Asia — are solving that first-impression problem with a very old, very visible tool: landmark outdoor advertising.
The play is simple: get your brand onto a screen in a place the whole world already looks at, and let the location do the talking.
Why landmark screens work
A screen at Times Square or Piccadilly Circus isn’t just another ad placement. It’s a proof-of-legitimacy event. Consumers see a brand on a world-famous screen and immediately upgrade their assumptions about it. The location itself becomes part of the brand story — and that story gets amplified because people photograph landmark screens and share them.
The reach is real. Times Square alone draws over 330,000 pedestrians a day and 115 million+ visitors a year, with more than 50 large-format LED screens. These environments turn a media buy into a shareable brand moment.
The data behind the strategy
- Outdoor advertising delivers the highest ad recall of any format at 86% — important when your brand is new to a market.
- 74% of mobile users take action on their phone after seeing a DOOH ad, which means a landmark appearance can drive real discovery — searches, visits, social follows.
- Global out-of-home spend hit $54.2 billion in 2025, up 15% year-on-year — more brands are putting more money into physical visibility than ever.
How it’s being done: real examples
The pattern is well established across industries. Brands entering Western markets have used landmark screens to announce themselves, pair with major events, and build credibility in days rather than years. The playbook works for everything from consumer goods to tech to cultural exports.
Globalstars has run this play for brands across categories. For iShop Shanghai, we built an international campaign spanning nine cities — New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore and more — placing high-traffic, high-tech outdoor formats at world landmarks to promote Shanghai’s new consumer image globally. For tea brand Guozi Shu Le and ambassador Yang Zi, we took the campaign across five continents — New York, Paris, Sydney, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg — turning a Chinese beverage into a global talking point. These are campaigns built around one insight: put the brand where the world already looks.
The playbook for going global with outdoor
If you’re planning an international launch, here’s the sequence that works:
- Pick a landmark that matches your story. Times Square for scale and media attention; Piccadilly Circus for European heritage; a major Asian city-center screen for regional authority.
- Design creative that works as a photo. A landmark appearance that people screenshot and share is worth more than the screen time itself. Make it visually bold and self-explanatory.
- Coordinate with a moment. Tie the launch to an event, a collection, a partnership, or a cultural moment to multiply coverage.
- Connect outdoor to online. Include a handle, hashtag, or QR code so the physical moment drives measurable discovery.
- Run long enough to land. A single day is a stunt; a few weeks builds actual awareness.
Why it works for Asian brands specifically
For brands from China and across Asia, the landmark-screen strategy is especially effective. Western consumers may not recognize the brand name, but a Times Square appearance instantly signals scale, ambition, and quality — it changes the conversation from “who are they?” to “they’re big enough for Times Square.”
That’s precisely the positioning Globalstars was built for. We’re a global outdoor advertising company that helps brands — particularly Chinese and Asian brands — establish international presence through premium placements at the world’s most iconic locations.
Your brand’s global first impression
You only get one chance to make a first impression in a new market. Landmark outdoor advertising turns that impression into something people photograph, share, and remember.
If going global is on your agenda, [talk to Globalstars](https://www.globalstarscn.com/) about building a landmark campaign that puts your brand where the world is looking.
Data sources: World Out of Home Organisation; OAAA/Harris Poll; Solomon Partners; Globalstars campaign case studies.
