Mysterious billboards started springing up all over the US and only big Snapchat fans will know the company behind them

Over the past few weeks, logo-less billboards have started springing up all over the US that, at first glance, look like the kind of everyday "welcome to..." road signs that greet people as they enter into a neighborhood.

But Snapchat fans taking a closer look at the hyper-local ads - celebrating districts such as Palm Springs, the Meatpacking district in New York City, and Mission in San Francisco - will realize they actually represent the individual geofilters found within the photo-sharing app.

Geofilters are the location-based graphics users can place over their snaps as a way to make their photos and videos look more entertaining and let their friends know where they are snapping from.

Last year, Snapchat allowed users to submit their own geofilters - using Adobe Illustrator of Photoshop - many of which have been accepted in the app for other users to apply to their snaps. Some of those user-generated geofilters feature among the 50 billboards in the US and Canada version of the campaign.

Snapchat plans to roll out the next edition of the push in the UK.

The campaign was created in-house, with MediaVest responsible for media buying.

It marks Snapchat's second outdoor advertising effort, following on from its minimalist bright yellow billboards displaying the brand's white ghost logo, which appeared around tech hubs in the US last year. Snapchat has also forked out for big outdoor advertising pitches at recent industry events including CES in January and the Cannes Lions advertising festival last summer.

Check out some of Snapchat's US geofilter billboards below: