The Ordinary

No Models, No Glitter, Just Hyaluronic Acid: The Ordinary’s Iconic OOH Campaigns

You know what’s rare in the beauty world? A skincare brand that doesn’t slap a dewy-faced influencer on everything, or sell you a serum with a side of spiritual awakening. But The Ordinary has always played by different rules, and their portfolio of out-of-home (OOH) campaigns prove you don’t need high-gloss visuals to make a seriously beautiful ad.

A little “out of the ordinary” for traditional OOH advertising, the visuals all have one thing in common - they’re text-based. Forget flashing lights, celebrity faces, or retina-burning colours, each billboard is a minimalist masterpiece: black and white, clinical vibes, and a cheeky wink of humour. It’s branding so strong, you could spot it from across the freeway and still know exactly who it’s from. 

Let’s break it down, shall we?

What are the campaigns?

The Ordinary has a history of launching out-of-home campaigns that are simple, no-nonsense, and chemically correct. Their long-term creative fling with Uncommon Creative Studio has produced a string of OOH gems, including their “The Truth Should Be Ordinary” campaign.

The billboards are exactly what you’d expect if a scientist wrote your marketing copy (which, apparently, they did).

“We tried naming our products once. But scientists are terrible copywriters. So we stuck with Hyaluronic Acid.”

Rather than featuring glowing models or nature’s bounty, they plaster their message across giant boards. Stark white backdrops, oodles of empty space, and the driest humour you’ll find outside a chemistry textbook. The copy placement isn’t just clean, it’s clinical - mirroring their iconic packaging that looks like it was pulled straight from an ingredient list. It’s so on brand, it might as well be bottled and sold next to their niacinamide.

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What makes their marketing effective?

It’s deeply aligned with the brand

These ads don’t shout or dance, they don’t even fill the whole space; and that’s exactly why they catch your eye. The Ordinary has built an empire by doing less. Their packaging is monochromatic, their product names sound like lab notes, and their tone is rational rather than romantic. These billboards have the same energy.

Everything about their campaigns reinforces the brand’s core: radical transparency, science-first formulas, and not a single glittery filter in sight.

It reads like a product label, with the benefit of wit. Let’s be real, some of these billboards also have way more copy than usual. But it’s formatted like an ingredients list, something the general public is used to skimming. This structure tells passersby: “You don’t have to read everything, but if you do, there’s something worth your time here.”

The quietness feels confident and the minimalism is fresh. It’s the skincare equivalent of someone walking into a party in a perfectly tailored white shirt while everyone else is in sequins.

Why this should be your OOH inspo

The Ordinary’s campaigns are a perfect case study in how to break the “rules” of outdoor advertising without losing effectiveness. At first glance, it does everything you’re told not to do. Too much text, no imagery, no bold colour, and yet, it works because of those choices, not in spite of them.

Instead of competing with the noise, it opts for clarity. The use of white space and minimalist type doesn’t just reflect the brand, it draws the eye because it’s so visually different from everything around it. In a streetscape full of saturated, maximalist ads, The Ordinary goes quiet, and stands out.

Its use of humour is subtle but clever. Not laugh-out-loud funny, but wry and self-aware. That tone is important. It’s the kind of brand voice that invites the audience in, makes them feel like insiders, and rewards them for paying attention. That’s not just great branding, it’s smart media use.

The strengths of great OOH:

From a media strategy perspective, The Ordinary is your friendly nudge that out-of-home isn’t just about reach, it’s about making it stick. It leans into OOH’s strengths: it’s physical, it’s unskippable, and when done right, it lingers in your brain longer than that one skincare step you keep forgetting.

• Instant recognisability
• Message clarity
• Brand consistency
• Designed for drive-by legibility while still being cheeky enough to be photographed and shared

These ads make sense on the street. They aren’t meant to explain the whole product range, they’re here to land a brand idea. They treat the billboards as a statement, not a sales pitch. 

Bringing this into your marketing strategy

So what can your marketing team take from these ads? Well, first off: don’t be afraid to show a little restraint. If your brand’s already got a solid tone of voice or a sharp visual identity, you don’t need to overcompensate with colour or clutter. Stripping things back to their bare essentials can actually amplify your message. Who knew minimalism could be so loud?

It also reinforces the idea that outdoor is a canvas, not a checklist. You’re not obligated to put your logo in every corner, or list every product benefit in 8 seconds or less. The Ordinary trusted its audience to fill in the gaps, and that’s what makes people actually look. By resisting the urge to over-explain, they made space for curiosity, connection, and maybe even a chuckle.

Now that The Ordinary has inspired your next creative, but you’re worried your head of marketing won’t greenlight a billboard that looks more like a pharmacy label than an ad. That’s where I come in. 

My platform is made for creative chaos and experimentation. You can launch a minimalist concept like this across digital screens, and if it performs well, scale it up. If it doesn’t? Swap it out in minutes, with no stress and no enormous upfront spend.

Need to localise your messaging across different suburbs or cities? Easy. Want to A/B test a wordy version versus a short-and-sweet one? I’ll get it done. Want to run it on just three screens for one day and see what happens? You’re in the right place.

You don’t need a seven-figure budget, a celebrity, or a biochemistry degree, just a solid idea, a dash of guts, and a platform (hi, that’s me) that lets you test, tweak, and take over the streets without the usual ad-land drama.

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Wanna make a billboard campaign that breaks the beauty standards (or marketing ones)?
Let’s get to work.

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- CAASie