Famous 3D billboards: the best examples and the cities where they work
The Shinjuku cat, the COEX wave, Nike Air Max, a dragon over Times Square: 12 verified 3D billboard examples by city, who made them, and how to pick a screen that gets filmed.
Famous 3D billboards: the short answer
The most famous 3D billboard examples are the calico cat on Cross Shinjuku Vision in Tokyo (2021), d’strict’s WAVE on the COEX facade in Seoul (2020), Nike’s Air Max boxes in Shinjuku (2022) and HBO’s House of the Dragon in Times Square (2022). Each is an anamorphic film on a real corner screen, built to be filmed from one spot.
Below are 12 examples checked against operators, brands and the trade press: what each showed, the exact screen, the year, and who made it when that is on record. KOSMO made none of them. Our own work in these cities has its own section further down.
3D billboard examples at a glance
| City | Example | Year | Screen | Brand or studio on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | The calico cat | 2021 | Cross Shinjuku Vision, Shinjuku east exit | Cross Space (operator), MicroAd Digital Signage, Unika |
| Tokyo | Nike Air Max Day | 2022 | Cross Shinjuku Vision | Nike Japan |
| Tokyo | The Akita dog | 2022 | 8 synced screens around Shibuya Crossing | Hit (operator) |
| Osaka | The Able robot | 2025 | Able Dotonbori Vision | Able |
| Seoul | WAVE | 2020 | SMTOWN COEX Artium facade, Gangnam | d’strict |
| Chengdu | The spaceship | 2020 | Curved wall at Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li | Screen by LianTronics |
| New York | House of the Dragon | 2022 | Corner above the Edition hotel, Times Square | HBO |
| New York | BMW XM | 2022 | Same corner | Goodby Silverstein & Partners, BCN Visuals |
| London | Coach x Lil Nas X | 2022 | Piccadilly Lights | Coach, with Ocean Outdoor’s DeepScreen |
| Dubai | Nando’s | 2025 | Screens above Roxy Cinema, JBR | The ARLab |
| Los Angeles | Visit California | 2024 | Moxy and AC Hotel facade, downtown | The Shipyard, Warm & Fuzzy |
| Las Vegas | NFL Sunday Ticket on Sphere | 2023 | The Exosphere | YouTube |
3D billboards in Tokyo and Japan
Two Tokyo spots set the standard: the east exit of Shinjuku Station and Shibuya Crossing. Osaka has joined them.
The Shinjuku 3D cat (2021)
The giant calico cat appeared in July 2021 on Cross Shinjuku Vision, a curved LED screen of 154.7 m² that covers 3 floors of the Cross Shinjuku building, at the east exit of Shinjuku Station. It pre-aired from July 1 and made its official debut on July 12. The operator, Cross Space, developed it with MicroAd Digital Signage and Unika. (SoraNews24)
The cat wakes up in the morning, shows up between the ads, and falls asleep at night. It became the screen’s mascot, and the operator was still releasing new cat films in 2025.
Nike Air Max Day in Shinjuku (2022)
Nike Japan took over the same screen for the week of March 21, 2022, in the run-up to Air Max Day on March 26 and the 35th anniversary of the Air Max. The 30-second film opens on a Nike shoebox. Balloons turn into Air Max 1s, the model first released in 1987, which cycle through colorways, glitch, and go back into the box. At the end, the resident cat’s paws pull the shoes away. (SoraNews24)
The cat cameo is the detail worth copying: the brand borrowed a character the crowd already knew.
The Shibuya Akita dog (2022)
From July 29, 2022, a giant 3D Akita, the breed of the famous dog Hachiko, appeared at the top of every hour on 8 synchronized screens around Shibuya Crossing. It catches a frisbee and jumps out of a 3D mechanical clock. The operator is the outdoor media company Hit. The best viewpoints are Hachiko Square, the Miyamasuzaka intersection, the crossing itself, and the upper floors of Shibuya Hikarie. (Time Out Tokyo)
Not one corner screen but 8 screens timed as one: the whole crossing becomes the stage.
Osaka: the Dotonbori 3D screen (2025)
Dotonbori is Osaka’s street of giant signs. In 2025, the real-estate company Able replaced the billboard it had run there since 1996 with a vertical LED screen, Able Dotonbori Vision: 14.5 m tall and 4.6 m wide, at Dotonbori 1-10-7, visible from Midosuji. From August 7, 2025, it ran 3 original naked-eye 3D films starring a giant robot mascot, about 10 times an hour, from 8 a.m. to midnight. Able recommends watching from Dotonbori Bridge. (PR Times)
What Japanese screens are good for
The hero screen of a global launch, when the clip matters as much as the street. Book through a Japanese media agency, or let us handle the buy. Japanese typography should be rebuilt for the screen, not pasted on top of an English film. See anamorphic billboards in Tokyo.
Japan also has screens no other city has. Shinjuku Wall 456 runs 45.6 metres along the East-West Free Passage inside JR Shinjuku station, with 39 pillar screens synced to it. In August 2026 it carried our 3D film for Miele’s AutoDos dishwashers, resized for the pillars and the Yamanote Line trains. Read the Shinjuku Wall 456 case.
3D billboard in Seoul, Korea: WAVE at COEX (2020)
In May 2020, the Seoul studio d’strict ran WAVE on the media facade of the SMTOWN COEX Artium in Gangnam: an ocean wave that seems to crash against the glass of a giant tank built into the corner of the building. The curved LED facade is about 80 m wide. The illusion is built for one viewpoint, and a soundtrack of breaking water completes it. The area around COEX is Korea’s first free outdoor advertising zone, which explains the size of its screens. (designboom)
What Seoul screens are good for
Big facades in a dense retail district, a crowd used to filming screens, and launches aimed at Korea and at K-pop fans worldwide. See anamorphic billboards in Seoul.
3D billboard in China: the Chengdu spaceship (2020)
In late 2020, clips of a spaceship breaking out of a curved LED wall in Chengdu spread worldwide. The wall is L-shaped, 912.92 m², and wraps the Yingjia Building at Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li, facing a crossroad of Chunxi Road. The ship pushes out of the wall and turns its head toward the street. The best view is from across the intersection. (Attractions Management)
Screens like this one are often sold as “naked-eye 3D”. The depth is still in the film, and it only holds from the angle it was built for.
3D billboards in Times Square, New York
Times Square has several corner screens built for this format. The one behind two of the best-known campaigns wraps the corner above the Edition hotel, at Seventh Avenue and 47th Street: two faces at 90 degrees, about 14,000 sq ft.
House of the Dragon (2022)
On August 12, 2022, 9 days before the series premiere, HBO posted video of its Times Square billboard: a Targaryen dragon looms over the street, breathes fire down at the sidewalk, then cuts to the show’s logo. Adweek later reported that it ran on the Edition corner. (Nerdist)
BMW XM (2022)
In October 2022, BMW used the same corner to open pre-orders for the XM, its new hybrid SUV. Goodby Silverstein & Partners made the campaign and BCN Visuals animated it: a countdown, a garage door opening, and the car driving out until it nearly leaves the screen. Adweek reported that BMW was the first car brand to run an animation on that board. (Adweek)
What New York screens are good for
A US or global moment on one hero corner, with transit and retail networks to carry the idea across the city. The corner inventory keeps growing: TSX Broadway switched on an 18,000 sq ft wraparound screen at 1568 Broadway in 2023. See anamorphic billboards in New York.
3D billboard in London: Piccadilly Lights
Piccadilly Lights is the 783.5 m² curved screen above Piccadilly Circus. Landsec owns it and Ocean Outdoor runs the advertising, including a 3D format Ocean calls DeepScreen.
Coach and Lil Nas X (2022)
From November 7 to 13, 2022, Coach ran “Courage to Be Real”, a 3D animated film starring its ambassador Lil Nas X, as a full-screen takeover once an hour. He walks through doors that stand for fear, self-doubt and other people’s judgment, seems to step out of the screen toward the street, and ends performing above Piccadilly Circus. (Billboard Insider)
What London screens are good for
A UK or European launch on one landmark, plus dense rail, underground and roadside networks for reach. One change matters for 3D: from January 2027, Piccadilly Lights moves from one 40-second full-screen slot per hour to two 60-second takeovers, and drops its 4-part production grid so the whole curve becomes one canvas. (invidis) More room for a 3D film. See anamorphic billboards in London.
3D billboard in Dubai: Nando’s at JBR (2025)
In December 2025, Nando’s opened its largest restaurant in the region, at The Beach, JBR, with the brand’s first 3D anamorphic billboard worldwide. It ran on the screens above Roxy Cinema, the largest at JBR, with a citywide taxi takeover around it. The ARLab handled the 3D concept, design and execution, and Contour Media supplied the screens. (Campaign Middle East)
What Gulf screens are good for
Mall corners, tower facades and the waterfront, for a launch that needs to be seen and shared in the same week, in Arabic and English. See anamorphic billboards in Dubai, or anamorphic billboards in Riyadh for a Saudi launch.
3D billboard in Los Angeles: Visit California (2024)
On April 29, 2024, Visit California launched a 3D film on a 15,000 sq ft LED screen on the facade of the Moxy and AC Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, billed as the largest “3D” billboard on the West Coast. A beach ball from its “Let’s Play” TV spot bounces across a CGI copy of the hotel’s balconies, then into a redwood forest and the Joshua Tree desert. The agency was The Shipyard and Warm & Fuzzy produced it. (Ads of the World)
What Los Angeles screens are good for
Entertainment launches, and an audience that makes content for a living. The Sunset Strip got a corner screen built for 3D in April 2025: a 2,500 sq ft cube at Sunset and La Cienega, which its owners bill as the first 3D anamorphic display on the Strip. (Billboard Insider) See anamorphic billboards in Los Angeles.
3D billboard in Las Vegas: Sphere (2023)
Sphere is not an anamorphic corner screen, but no list of 3D billboards in Las Vegas can skip it. Its exterior, the Exosphere, was fully lit for the first time on July 4, 2023: about 580,000 sq ft of programmable LED, made of roughly 1.2 million LED pucks. The venue opened in September 2023, and YouTube made the first major ad buy, taking over the Exosphere to promote NFL Sunday Ticket. Exosphere ads were reported at $450,000 for a day to $650,000 for a week. (Marketing Brew)
Sphere content is built for a globe seen from every side, so corner-screen rules do not apply. On the Strip spectaculars and resort facades, they do. See anamorphic billboards in Las Vegas.
Other cities where 3D billboards work
Some strong markets have no world-famous 3D billboard yet, which makes a first one easier to notice:
- Paris: mall corners, station concourses and shopping-street screens. The Miele HydroClean campaign ran on Paris and La Défense screens. See anamorphic billboards in Paris.
- Amsterdam: stations, the airport and shopping streets, and the natural hub for a Benelux plan. Miele ran on Rembrandtplein and Leidseplein. See anamorphic billboards in Amsterdam.
- Berlin: the entry point to Germany’s station, mall and roadside networks. See anamorphic billboards in Berlin.
- Madrid: the Plaza de Callao and Gran Vía screens, plus malls and the metro. See anamorphic billboards in Madrid.
- Milan: stations, malls and the fashion district, plus landmarks for FOOH films. See anamorphic billboards in Milan.
Our own work in these cities
Every example above was made by other studios. Here is what KOSMO delivered in the same markets.
Miele HydroClean. One CGI idea, a building whose facade opens like an oven, on 81 screens in 76 cities across France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands: 5 languages, 300+ versions, each built for its screen. It ran from the Digital Dream at Westfield Les 4 Temps to Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam and Rue Neuve in Brussels. Miele’s European team then introduced us to Miele Japan, whose campaign went live in Shinjuku at the end of August 2026.
FOOH films. These are not screens. They are mixed-reality films for social, where the 3D object is added to real footage (what FOOH is).
- Los Angeles: two films for Netflix’s Big Mistakes, a CGI necklace heist on a real Sunset Boulevard billboard, and a film for Avatar: The Last Airbender, where a cracked sidewalk opens onto the Earth Kingdom (30K+ likes on the Netflix post).
- New York: a carton of Yoshi eggs on a grocery shelf, a self-initiated concept for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, not a Nintendo commission: 5M views, 15M earned media impressions, $0 paid media.
- Milan: Maisons du Monde in front of the Duomo (1M+ earned media) and a padel series for Oysho.
- Dubai: a self-initiated iPhone 17 Pro Max concept (46M+ earned media).
In total: 150+ campaigns in 14 countries, and 750+ screens adapted. Our screen work is what we call 3DOOH: anamorphic billboards built for each screen in the plan. See all our FOOH films.
What the best 3D billboards have in common
- A crowd that stands still. A station exit, a crossing, a bridge, a sidewalk across the street. The screen comes second.
- One object, one action. A cat, a wave, a shoebox, a dragon. You get it in 3 seconds, without sound.
- Something crosses the frame. The wave hits the glass, the car nearly drives off, the ship turns its head. Depth only reads when an object seems to break the edge of the screen.
- A schedule people can wait for. The Shibuya dog plays at the top of every hour. Coach took the full screen once an hour. People film what they know is coming.
- A reason to post this week. Air Max Day, a premiere 9 days out, a restaurant opening.
- The brand lives in the object. Nike’s shoebox, HBO’s dragon, BMW’s car. Nobody needs a logo card to know whose it is.
- The phone clip is the real media. The Shinjuku cat went viral through a short video. Plan the vertical version from day one (how 3D billboards travel on social).
Two limits apply to all of them. The illusion holds from one viewpoint: step to the side and the cat looks stretched. And the novelty has faded since 2021: an object popping out of a screen no longer gets filmed on its own, so the idea has to carry the clip.
How to pick a 3D billboard location that gets filmed
Start from where people stand, not from a list of screens.
- Find the viewpoint. Where do people stop with a phone in hand: a crossing, a bridge, a station exit? The illusion is built for that exact spot.
- Corner, curved or flat. A corner screen gives the strongest depth. A flat screen can work too, with a different technique (corner and flat screens, explained).
- Size against distance. A huge facade seen from 200 m can feel smaller than a mall corner seen from 15 m.
- The slot. A full-screen takeover beats a 10-second slot inside a shared layout. Ask how often your film plays per hour.
- Sound. Few outdoor screens have it. Build the film to work silent.
- Specs and approval. Pixel map, frame rate, file rules and the media owner’s sign-off all take time (media owner specs for 3D). Our free screen brief checklist lists what to ask.
- A spot for your own camera. Book a filming position for the social version before the first day on air.
FAQ
Where is the 3D cat billboard?
On Cross Shinjuku Vision, at 3-23-18 Shinjuku, Tokyo, on the Cross Shinjuku building at the east exit of Shinjuku Station, next to Alta Vision. Watch it from the east exit square. The screen runs from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., and the operator marked the cat’s 4th anniversary in July 2025.
Are 3D billboards real?
Yes. The screens are real and so is the illusion, but it only works from one viewpoint. No special 3D screen is needed: as DOOH analyst Dave Haynes wrote about a Chengdu clip, the depth comes from the creative, not the LED. Some viral “billboards” never ran on a screen at all: they are FOOH films, CGI added to real footage.
Can any brand book the Shinjuku or Times Square screens?
Yes. These are commercial screens: Nike booked the Shinjuku cat’s screen for a week, and HBO and BMW used the same Times Square corner 2 months apart. You book through the operator or a media agency. We can run the buy, so the screens are chosen to fit the idea and you keep control of the budget.
How much does a Times Square 3D billboard cost?
We found no reliable published rate for the Times Square corners. The price depends on the screen, the slot length and frequency, the number of days and the season. For scale, Sphere in Las Vegas was reported at $450,000 for a day in 2023. The creative is a separate budget: the projects we are built for usually land around €40,000. More in our 3D billboard cost guide.
How long does it take to make a 3D billboard?
3 to 4 weeks from the approved brief to delivery, with 2 rounds of changes included. Add the media owner’s approval time, and book the slot before production starts.
Planning a 3D billboard in one of these cities?
Tell us the city, the screen or the area you have in mind, and your launch date, and we tell you what the screen can take and whether a 3D film will work there: contact us. Not ready to brief yet? Ask for a free concept for your screen.