The Big E 'Unexpect Everything' Advertising Campaign by Colossus
How Event OOH Advertising & The Big E Billboards Turn Complex Brands Into Memorable Campaigns
The Big E is difficult to summarize because so many different experiences exist in the same place at once: outrageous fair food, agriculture, concerts, livestock, rides, shopping and traditions from across New England.
That is exactly why the “Unexpect Everything” platform works so well. Instead of simplifying the event, it turns that unpredictability into the central creative idea.
For brands and events facing the same challenge, Atlas OOH can help transform a broad or complicated story into a clear outdoor platform that works across billboards, DOOH, mobile media and experiential formats.
If your campaign has multiple audiences, products or experiences to communicate, start planning an OOH strategy built around one distinctive idea that can flex without losing its identity.
Where else can you see a more than 600-pound butter sculpture, eat a deep-fried calzone, enjoy a horse show, compete in a quilting competition and then buy a hot tub?
The answer is The Big E.
And that is exactly what makes the campaign smart.
Instead of forcing the fair into a neat category, “Unexpect Everything” uses the fair's unpredictability as the core of the creative strategy.
Why The Big E OOH Campaign Embraced Fair Chaos
The Big E is not just a fair—it is a collision of six New England states, agriculture, food, shopping, rides, music, nostalgia, and spectacle. That complexity is part of the appeal, but it also makes the event difficult to summarize in traditional marketing. Colossus solved that problem by doing something more effective than explanation: they turned the chaos into the story itself.
It is a collision of six New England states, agriculture, food, shopping, rides, music, nostalgia and spectacle.
That complexity is part of the appeal — but it also makes the event difficult to summarize in a traditional marketing message.
Colossus solves that problem by doing something more effective than explanation: it turns the chaos into the story itself.
How Colossus and The Big E Created an Unforgettable OOH Positioning Line
The platform line is playful, memorable and slightly offbeat — which is exactly why it fits.
“Unexpect Everything” tells people to prepare for surprise, contradiction and scale.
It captures the strange magic of a place where:
- agriculture meets pop culture,
- fried food meets craftsmanship,
- concerts meet livestock,
- and absurdity meets tradition.
That line gives the campaign a flexible framework that can work across food, music, experiential, agriculture and family entertainment without losing coherence.
A poster that captures the fair's all-in-one spirit
The illustrated campaign poster is a strong expression of The Big E's identity because it compresses the fair's eclectic world into one composition.
Animals, food, Americana, performance and regional pride all coexist in the same visual system.
That matters because the fair itself works in exactly the same way.
The campaign celebrates randomness instead of cleaning it up
Many event campaigns try to organize everything into a clean hierarchy.
This one does the opposite.
It highlights the fair's inability to fit neatly into one box.
That is why the creative feels so true to the brand.
You are not being sold one attraction.
You are being invited into a giant, lovable contradiction.
The Bleat Fleet: Mobile Billboards & Event OOH Advertising in Action
One of the most memorable elements is the goat-themed mobile activation known as The Bleat Fleet.
This is more than a standard mobile ad unit.
It behaves like a moving spectacle.
By presenting goats in a truck-format execution, the campaign turns a media placement into something people would stop, stare at and talk about.
It dramatizes the agricultural identity of the fair while reinforcing the idea that The Big E is full of things you do not expect to see together.
Oversized Food Billboards Become a Key Outdoor Creative Asset for The Big E
The Big E is known for indulgent food, so the campaign makes that culture impossible to ignore.
Extended billboards featuring giant fair foods push scale into absurd territory, which is exactly where the campaign wants to live.
The result is not just appetite appeal.
It is appetite plus humor plus memorability.
One of the standout lines — “If you want a small, you can give your friend half.” — is a perfect example of how the copy turns excess into the joke.
Why the food billboards work so well
Fair food is already excessive.
The billboard format gives that excess a larger stage.
By pairing enormous visuals with cheeky headlines, the creative transforms product photography into a brand statement about the fair itself.
The message is not only “the food is big.”
The message is also “this place refuses to be modest.”
The campaign is built to speak to many audiences at once
That flexibility is one of its biggest strengths.
Some visitors come for outrageous fried food.
Some come for agriculture and livestock.
Some come for concerts by artists like Alice Cooper, Jessie Murph, The Beach Boys, deadmau5, Styx and Ice Cube.
Some come for rides, shopping or family traditions.
“Unexpect Everything” is broad enough to include all of those motives without flattening them into generic event language.
Atlas OOH Can Turn Brand Chaos Into a Clear Outdoor Idea
The Big E is a useful reminder that a complicated brand does not need a complicated message. Sometimes the most effective strategy is to turn a messy truth into a sharp creative platform. Atlas OOH can help brands identify those truths and turn them into campaigns across billboards, DOOH, transit, mobile OOH and street-level media.
If your brand has too many good things to say at once, Atlas OOH can help shape that complexity into a campaign people instantly understand and remember.
The visual identity feels as eclectic as the event
The campaign uses bold colors, oversized typography and surprising combinations to create a system that feels as restless and energetic as the fair itself.
That visual language is important because it prevents the campaign from feeling too polished or too corporate.
The Big E is not a minimalist experience.
Its creative should not feel minimal either.
The design system matches the fair's personality by giving it energy, humor and a little bit of visual overload.
Multi-channel thinking helps the platform travel
The campaign extends beyond billboards and mobile OOH into:
- CTV
- Meta
- radio
- experiential activations
That matters because the idea is not tied to a single execution.
It is a platform.
And the platform is versatile enough to flex for different audiences, different formats and different reasons for attending.
Atlas OOH Can Build Campaigns That Feel Bigger Than a Single Placement
The Big E campaign shows how outdoor can work as part of a broader ecosystem rather than as a stand-alone awareness tactic. When billboards, mobile activations and experiential formats all reinforce the same idea, the campaign becomes more immersive and more culturally visible. Atlas OOH can help brands build those connected systems across formats and markets.
Whether the goal is regional awareness, event promotion or a brand platform that needs to travel across multiple touchpoints, Atlas OOH helps turn creative concepts into visible real-world campaigns.
Why “Unexpect Everything” is the right tone for The Big E
The Big E does not need to become more normal in order to become more marketable.
Its distinctiveness comes from the fact that it is difficult to describe without sounding a little ridiculous.
That is not a weakness.
That is the brand advantage.
Colossus understands this and builds the creative around the fair's strange, oversized and joyful contradictions.
Bottom line
The Big E's “Unexpect Everything” campaign succeeds because it embraces what makes the fair impossible to reduce: food, animals, entertainment, shopping, rides, crafts, music and six states worth of identity all converging in one place.
The campaign does not try to tidy that up.
It turns it into a feature.
And by using giant visuals, playful copy, experiential mobile OOH and a bold visual system, it proves that the best event campaigns do not just advertise attendance — they give audiences a preview of the energy they will feel once they arrive.
If your brand also needs a campaign that makes people stop, look and instantly get the idea, Atlas OOH can help translate strategy into visible outdoor experiences across billboards, DOOH, transit, mobile and experiential media.
Frequently asked questions
What is The Big E's Unexpect Everything campaign?
It is a campaign created by Colossus for The Big E that celebrates the fair's unpredictable mix of food, agriculture, rides, shopping, entertainment and New England culture through bold OOH, mobile ads and experiential activations.
Why does the campaign use goats and oversized food billboards?
Those creative choices reflect the fair's unique combination of agriculture and outrageous food experiences, helping the campaign dramatize how surprising and eclectic The Big E really is.
How big is The Big E?
The Big E is described as America's only multi-state fair and one of the largest fairs in North America, with more than 1.5 million attendees in 2025.
Which channels are part of the campaign?
The campaign runs across mobile digital ads, billboards, CTV, Meta, print, radio and experiential activations throughout New England and surrounding states.
Sources
- The Big E Invites New England to “Unexpect Everything” in New Campaign from Colossus - Marketing Communication News / Newsroom; source: Colossus
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