Cold Roads, Hot Marketing: How Iceland’s Clever ‘Hola’ Campaign Became a Global Masterclass in Public Relations

REYKJAVÍK – Infrastructure marketing is notoriously difficult to make exciting. Yet, a brilliant creative initiative out of Iceland has done the unthinkable: it turned pothole complaints into an award-winning, globally discussed marketing phenomenon. 

The "¡Hola!" campaign, launched by the road-paving giant Colas Ísland in collaboration with advertising agency Pipar/TBWA, has caught the attention of international marketing circles after completely sweeping Iceland’s prestigious advertising awards (Lúðurinn) and winning Áran—the title for the most effective campaign of the year. 

The Icelandic Context: A Brilliant Linguistic Twist

Aired across Icelandic television, billboards, and digital media, the campaign capitalized on a genius linguistic coincidence. While the Spanish word "¡Hola!" is a cheerful greeting, phonetically it sounds identical to "hola", the Icelandic word for a pothole.

Instead of hiding from public frustration regarding worn-down winter roads, Colas leaned directly into the problem. They introduced the world to Nicolas, a fictional, overly enthusiastic "pothole lover" who traveled across Iceland's rugged road networks, cheerfully saying "hello" (¡Hola!) to every crater he encountered on TV and social media. 

Beyond the Screen: Driving Political and Civic Action

What started as a humorous broadcast campaign quickly evolved into a massive public engagement project. The initiative featured several highly strategic pillars that turned viral laughs into real-world impact:

• The Ruined Roads Guidebook (Ónýtuvegahandbókin): Colas published a comprehensive, tongue-in-cheek guidebook mapping out the worst road damage across the country, effectively pressure-testing local authorities to step up infrastructure budgets.
• Interactive Civic Tracking: Icelandic drivers and cyclists were invited to actively participate by reporting road issues, transforming a public nuisance into a proactive community effort.
• Humanizing the Crew: The ads cleverly shifted public perspective, turning road maintenance workers from an "inconvenience that causes traffic" into community heroes fixing the infrastructure.

Why the International Marketing World is Watching

International branding experts are pointing to the Icelandic campaign as a prime example of "flawpop" marketing—taking a company's most glaring industry challenge and turning it into their greatest asset.

"Colas Iceland didn't just ask for patience; they created a shared cultural moment out of a universal frustration," noted an international creative director during an ad-industry review. "By using humor and local wordplay, they took the heat off their brand and put the focus on collaborative solutions."

With its recent clean sweep at the 2026 Icelandic marketing awards, the "¡Hola!" campaign has proven that even the most mundane industries can achieve international creative acclaim. It stands as a reminder to companies worldwide that sometimes, the best way to fix a problem is to look it in the face and simply say hello. 

Sigþór Sigurðsson, CEO Colas Ísland
sigthor.sigurdsson@colas.is
 

Lára Zulima Ómarsdóttir
Head of Public Relations and Communications

Colas, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, designs, builds, and maintains mobility infrastructure and sustainable development projects worldwide. 

Pipar\TBWA a part of TBWA, which comprises over 300 agencies worldwide. This keeps us plugged into the success of countless other TBWA campaigns as we learn and share with our clients the valuable experience of marketing efforts elsewhere in the network.