Shark Tank's Biggest Success Stories Are Advertising Out of Home

March 13, 2025

The dramatic music. The tense negotiations. That long, iconic hallway. The occasional founder sobbing uncontrollably on national television. It’s no wonder Shark Tank is so bingeable.

And for founders, considering that just appearing on the show can help a business 10x or even 20x its revenue, it’s no wonder that producers get 35,000 to 40,000 applications every season (SOURCES: Entrepreneur, USA Today). They call it the Shark Tank Effect.


But getting into a contentious back-and-forth with Mr. Wonderful isn’t the only way that brands on the rise can achieve mass awareness. There’s also out of home advertising.

The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, some of Shark Tank’s biggest-ever success stories are OUTFRONT advertisers!


That includes its all-time number one: Bombas. After they accepted Daymond John’s offer ($200k for 17.5%), the company went on to sell more than $1.3 billion worth of first socks, then underwear and t-shirts too. That has allowed the company to donate more than 100 million apparel items to organizations serving the unhoused. That “One Purchased = One Donated” mission has been central to the brand’s identity since day one (SOURCE: Forbes).

That mission is more than just a tax deduction for Bombas. Two years ago, the brand ran a powerful and moving OOH campaign in New York City intended to dispel myths about homelessness, who experiences it, and the reasons why. The campaign also brought the brand plenty of awareness of its own, including coverage in Adweek and Modern Retail along with a Gold Honor for community engagement at the 8th annual Shorty Impact Awards. OUTFRONT CMO Jodi Senese even interviewed Bombas Co-Founder and CBO Randy Goldberg about it for Ad Club New York.

Bombas isn’t the only Shark Tank standout to understand the value of out of home. In fact, three out of the show’s ten most successful alumni ever have advertised with us.


“That’s the one I regret not doing,” said Mark Cuban, “’cause that’s a deal I would have loved.” Which OUTFRONT advertiser was he talking about? It was The Bouqs, a florist promising delivery direct from farm to consumer without any middlemen. The Sharks passed on the pitch ($258k for 3%) and then watched as the company went on to accumulate $640 million in sales, earning it the #4 position (SOURCE: USA Today).


The founders of the #7-ranked brand told Mark Cuban during Season 7 “your ass hates you” for using dry toilet paper. Cuban then invested $300k for a 25% share. That brand, the irreverent and cheeky Dude Wipes, then went on to rack up $341 million in sales, begging the question of what dudes were using before (SOURCE: USA Today).

There’s one Shark Tank brand in particular whose use of out of home advertising was especially noteworthy. Ten years ago, Melissa Butler and Roscoe Speres pitched the Sharks on The Lip Bar, a cosmetic line whose colors are named for alcoholic beverages. They asked for a $125k investment for 20% of the company

To say the Sharks passed would be an understatement. Kevin O’Leary demonstrated why he earned the Mr. Wonderful moniker, telling them “I can see massive market share in the clown market” and “you only have so many minutes on Earth, don’t waste them trying to sell lipstick.


Flash forward: By 2022, The Lip Bar had sold over 2 million units. Today the company is valued at $15 million and you can buy its products at Target, Walmart, and CVS (SOURCE: Essence).

To celebrate its tenth birthday, the brand ran OUTFRONT billboards in Detroit and four other cities. The ad copy read: “Shark Tank told me to quit. 10 years and 2 million units sold. Thanks, Mr. Wonderful.


That billboard did some serious social out of home numbers on Instagram – nearly 40,000 likes and 2,700 comments. It also earned press attention from Yahoo! Finance, CNBC, Glossy, and TLB’s hometown paper, the Detroit Free Press. It also caught the eye of Mr. Wonderful himself.

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“I’m proud of them for taking the heat,” O’Leary told The Breakfast Club when asked about the billboard. “They were facing an almost impossible task…but they pulled it off, so you gotta applaud them – there’s no question about it.”

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention one final Shark Tank company, Rareform. This one Mr. Wonderful liked, loaning them $300k in exchange for 10%. Rareform isn’t in this story though because of what they do on our billboards – but rather for what they do with them.


Rareform collects 80% of the used billboard vinyl in the U.S. and upcycles it into one-of-a-kind bags and accessories. To date they’ve saved over 381,000 billboards from the landfill (SOURCE: Rareform).

We are proud to call Rareform one of OUTFRONT’s sustainability partners. And we’re proud to have played a role in the success of brands like Bombas, The Bouqs, and The Lip Bar. We’d love to play a role in your success too. Contact us today and let’s talk about how.

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT

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