From good to great: how the Digital Creative Competition helps non-profits win big

When it comes to originality, nothing compares to Ocean’s annual Digital Creative Competition which attracts some of the biggest ideas in Out of Home. And there’s every chance that this year’s shortlist will produce another enviable slate of ideas the rest of us wish we’d thought of.

Now in its 17th year, Ocean’s competition consistently powers international success for visionary brands, agencies and non profits who show the world how DOOH combines progressive technology with data, using an ever expanding range of creative formats to let imaginations fly.

As our independent jury convenes this week to discuss the 2026 entries, here’s a roll call of 12 pioneers in the non profit category who have used the freedom of our competition to present novel, disruptive, audacious work.

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• The MicroLoan Foundation’s Pennies for Life was an interactive campaign created by DLKW Lowe to help raise small loans for business women in sub Saharan Africa. This 2011 winner, which used public donations as they happened to create animated portraits of women on the large format screen, went on to win a Gold Cannes Lions in the mobile category.
  
• In 2012, Elvis and Compassion in World Farming fed apples in real time to a field of free range Tamworth pigs in Buckinghamshire, via a DOOH screen located miles away in Westfield London. Participants used their mobile phones to activate a purpose built feeding contraption which was engineered by students from London South Bank University.
  
• Created by 18 Feet & Rising and DOOH.com, March for Giants transcended global boundaries, broadcasting across three continents for the charity Space for Giants which works to protect wild elephants. The activation saw a virtual herd of 3D, computer-generated elephants march across digital screens worldwide in real-time, from Hong Kong all the way to Manchester.
  
• There were both Gold and Silver Cannes Lions in 2014 for WCRS and Women’s Aid’s Look at Me. This was a world first back because it was the first time the attention of people looking directly at digital screens triggered an immediate change in the creative message. The campaign broadcast across three locations and was amplified around the world, featuring on TV news channels, generating wide media comment and further industry plaudits.
  
• M&C Saatchi integrated EEG technology which reads brain waves to create a game of Mind Pong, a billboard game controlled by human thought. The 2014 winner for The Brain Tumour Charity played out at Westfield London, with headbands monitoring electrical activity in players’ brains.

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• In 2016, 23Red and NHS Blood & Transplant used augmented reality to show the transformational power of life saving blood donations, using DOOH combined with smartphone AR to replicate the procedure. The non profit won again in 2025 with an impactful campaign in partnership with Havas London, which drained the red from the logos of well known brands to highlight critical blood shortages.
  
• There was a silver Cannes Lion for WCRS and the Born Free Foundation for Tank Free, This 2017 winning idea used CGI to highlight the plight of Orcas in captivity, equating the screens with the size of the tanks many Orcas are forced to live in.
  
• In 2022, Forever Beta and The Big Issue Foundation used our competition to help vendors reclaim their place on the High Street, after the pandemic created one of the most challenging periods in the charity’s history. I’m Here used digital screens and GPS-enabled vendor vests to make sellers more visible to the public. The campaign went on to win a bronze Outdoor Lions.
  
• Put It On Your List, an interactive campaign to help stock The Trussell Trust’s local foodbanks with emergency public donations, used data to identify what products were most needed for those affected by the cost of living crisis. The winning idea from TMW Unlimited activated across four UK cities in 2023.
  
• Greenpeace UK partnered with elvis for a ‘billboard protest’ using The Loop small format, full motion network in three cities. ‘You can’t arrest this billboard’ harnessed the “safety” of OOH spaces to call for the restoration of the public’s democratic right to protest. This simultaneous act allowed high profile activists to make their stand from inside DOOH, drawing attention to the very real risk of their arrest if they were outside.

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• To spark conversations around mental health, Ruby Wax’s charity, Frazzled, transformed Manchester’s Printworks SkyLights into an interactive sky, combining special effects and live engagement to ask people ‘What’s the weather like in your head today?’  TV news coverage and social media shares gave The Feeling Ceiling, a 2024 winner from Revolt, significant exposure and reach.
  
• Last year’s UK non profit Gold winner, Prost8, also took Ocean’s European Grand Prix for Dodge the Finger, the world’s first ever billboard controlled by a human bottom. Created by TBWA\MCR, the arcade style retro game aimed at men aged 50+ used comedy to tackle an important health issue and drive blood test awareness. A brilliant concept which subsequently made its way onto the 2026 Cannes Lions shortlist.

To learn more about how DOOH can be a springboard to international fame, or enquire about a seat to our DCC creative summit and awards ceremony in London on 8th October, email infor@oceanoutdoor.com.