Here Are the Insights OUTFRONT Leaders Shared at the OAAA’s 2026 OOH Media Conference

May 27, 2026

Another edition of the OAAA’s OOH Media Conference is in the books, and OUTFRONT was well-represented on the week’s panels, with CEO Nick Brien, EVP, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer Stacy Minero, and EVP, CRO, Enterprise Jim Norton on the event’s stages. And while there’s no substitute for connecting in real life, we understand it’s not always feasible. That’s why we put together a collection of the most important insights from the event for those unable to attend.

Nick Brien on how IRL media differentiates its value proposition from digital

If you're human, using in real life, you are the power of physical presence, which builds trust. We've got to dial that up as a benefit and then be able to prove it. And that's why the measurement piece – that's the promise, that's the narrative, that's a value proposition. Okay, show me that it works, right? But at least we can start with a more progressive and a fresher and more dynamic – I personally get frustrated when I hear a lot of focus on “Well, we sell billboards and audiences.” No, we sell outcomes and solutions…Our opportunity is to demonstrate to the most significant brand advertisers who care about brand marketing – not talking about the performance market – that the power of our reach and our influence with the creative impact we have – that drives action.

Nick Brien on why brands are embracing IRL

When you leave your home and you go to the bar, you go to see sports and you're into our world, you're into the real world…We talk about the brand experience, because some of the biggest brands, they don't need more awareness. They need more cultural credibility. They want to have their finger on the pulse. They want to be as part of these communities. And if he's creative enough, it gets shared, it gets snapped, it gets shared. And then, you get that multiplication of the earned media, not just paid media.

Stacy Minero on how she sees the IRL media opportunity

We're in this evolutionary shift at OUTFRONT, where we're shifting from legacy out of home to IRL media, and that means we're focused on digital, experiential, sports marketing elements, because that's where the client attention has shifted. So it's not just a rebrand of OOH, it's a reimagining of the category that we play in…we can break out of the category convention and get brands to see us as an alternative to their mobile funnel, digital media mix, or a way to create stopping power on the street. The total size of the out of home category is $10 billion and digital media is $300 billion and at least $40 billion of that is waste. You think about the mobile display of pop-ups and the clicks that lead to nowhere. So I'm really focused on pushing strategic positioning around the value we bring, around the impact we drive our connection to culture, creative services that we offer, and the ability for brands to reach not just people in cities, but the communities where they live, work and gather.

Stacy Minero on IRL as the “human medium”

A campaign that we recently partnered with British Airways on focused on “everything's better with a British accent” took the New York City Subway train and turned it into a plane. Then there were interactive components where you could listen to audio from their cabin crew, who were on site to welcome commuters and hand out treat boxes with scones and bags of tea. And that became a moment creators captured and shared with their fans and followers. I love these moments that create a little bit of serendipity, that add a moment of delight and discovery to commuters’ day and doing more and more of those experiences, as we think about those as a complement to the scalable ads that run across our network.

Stacy Minero on AI disruption

Traffic to brands' websites is down 60% and web traffic, for the first time this year, is 51% bot driven. It's going to be 75% in the next three years. There's going to be an increasing premium place on reaching humans. You can envision a world where there's a CPH, a cost per human, as we move away from the CPM. We are sitting on a network of inventory assets and ideas that reach people directly. IRL media creates a direct connection between brands and consumers, not disruptive, not interruptive, and it's fully opt-in.

Jim Norton on measuring IRL outcomes

I just love the way that [Saatva] leaned into IRL media to drive an IRL in-store experience. It's really hard to buy a mattress without testing the mattress, right? I know our whole goal was to drive football in store visits to your sales team, but I didn't realize it was a 60% conversion rate. That's what every in-store retailer wanted. Get me in front of the sales people. That's a perfect way to use the medium - use the IRL medium to drive an IRL measurement metric, which, in this case was that in-store traffic, and then ultimately conversions.

Jim Norton on the importance of long-term measurement

The fact that we worked with a partner who initially saw poor measurement results, a lot of folks would have hid from that. The fact that we found a way to optimize through that with our partners on this, and to be able to optimize for ultimate success, that is what we need to do as an industry. All of us need to embrace measurement, regardless of what it says initially, right? We know that in many cases, that upper-funnel brand building, coupled with those short-term metrics, you're going to see that 5x lift over time.


Nick also sat down with Atlético Dallas Co-Owner Kyle Martino to talk about how shared experiences build culture and community.

Kyle Martino on soccer passion and the power of proximity

Recognizing the atom of how you, whether as a player or as a fan, just fall in love with soccer and willing to commit yourself to being a consumer to it for the rest of your life, it starts very close to you. So it's, where's your closest team? Where's your closest field? and who are the people that you want to share this experience with? And I love this term, collective effervescence, the last bastion of people getting together as they feel a little bit of skepticism towards institutions and also in echo chambers and a digital experience at home. I think nothing is harder than getting people out to go do something together, and nothing is a greater force multiplier than accomplishing that.

Kyle Martino on where brands fall short to connect with fans

Intrigue, that's the beginning of the user journey. Obviously, “why should I care?” And after intrigue, it's got to be engagement. Like, “why should I do anything about it?” After engagement, it's got to be for me. And I think this is where a lot of brands lose the battle. It's got to be experience as everyone that has their attention infiltrated daily. So that experience, part of the flywheel, is absolutely essential. So after experience becomes belief, like “you were right, what I thought I'd feel when I started this user journey, I did feel and I shared with others.” It's true belief, then moves on to loyalty. Loyalty then moves on to trust. And trust is essential, or else did your marketing campaign succeed?

Kyle Martino on how brands earn media and build community:

Community is the hardest thing to do and takes the longest, which is why not many people go and do it. You could build one yourself. I wouldn't suggest it. But the other thing you can do is who are the ones that you could help scale that are reaching those consumers that are out there doing it. Sometimes it's better to be the microphone than be the message. Sometimes someone's nailed the message, and it's incredibly authentic, and you can help them reach more consumers. The paid media is the hardest way to reach people. You can look at the term sheet and look at the numbers, but look further down the line. None of them engage. None of them did what you hoped they would do. But if paid media is the rock into the lake, earned media are the ripples off of that, and earn media is a lot easier when you are plugging into the people that are actually doing it, rather than trying to come up with the message yourself…If brands are truly integrated, the authenticity is also the utility of a brand, helping me achieve my dreams, helping me enable the passions that I have, not just selling me goods and services.

Inspired by these insights? Contact OUTFRONT to put them into action for your brand.

Author: Jay Fenster, Senior Manager, Marketing Content @ OUTFRONT

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