Since touching down on South African shores towards the end of 2016, Sol beer has made its mark.

Just yesterday I was sitting at Mowbray’s Fat Cactus and noticed the Mexican beer had taken over, with the Espiritu Libre spirit evident everywhere.

But while it’s common practice for brands to sponsor locations and events that reflect their mantra, Sol has gone one step further in dominating South Africa’s ad space.

Since the end of last year, every day, three of the best posts the brand receives from their ‘Sunshine In My Bottle’ campaign have been seen on digital billboards across Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, proving digital campaigns can translate in the traditional media space.

Way better than driving past and seeing the same old billboard every day, right?

Katie Lu, Sol Senior Brand Manager, explained:

Sol is all about offering our fans bold, fresh new experiences that are firsts for South Africa. With this campaign we’re moving beyond a purely digital campaign and we’ve found a clever way to integrate a social media campaign into an above the line medium.

We think it’s pretty clever too, Katie.

The interactive campaign started by asking social influencers to post what their idea of a freedom in the sun is.

#FreeYourSol – cool, I see what you did there.

But now, Sol has put out the request to their 850 000 plus Facebook followers, asking them to share how many ways there are to celebrate the summer sunshine and independence that the Mexican lager embodies:

The campaign uses of a variety of different influencers to engage with a wide range of audiences. “By using a wide variety of influencers, we can extend the reach of the campaign, through the secondary audiences of the influencers, adding real value to the campaign,” explains Lu.

“We wanted to celebrate the arrival of summer with a special campaign. With this campaign we show that it’s possible to run a pioneering campaign that resonates with people online and convert that into the traditional media space quite easily. It has been really exciting to open up a conversation online and then bring that conversation across into the outdoor media space to reach even more people,” says Lu.

We’re always happy when we see ad campaigns that think a little outside of the box, so props to those who came up with this concept.

If want to get your photograph on one of the 24 billboards across the country, then here’s how: take a very cool picture featuring one – or more – Sol beers and upload it to either their Facebook page or on your Instagram with the hashtags #FreeYourSol and #SolBeer.

Before you know it, you could be driving past your very own billboard.

Does anyone else feel like an ice cold beer at this point? Yup, me too.

Here’s hoping you get to start your weekend with a Sol in your hand. Or several, we’re not here to judge.