Here’s How OUTFRONT Connected in Real Life at Cannes Lions 2026

July 14, 2026

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: there’s nothing like connecting in real life.

And when it comes to connecting in real life, there’s nothing like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. And this year, perhaps the only thing hotter than the sweltering temperatures was IRL media. In an age where trust is scarce, screens are exhausting, and brands are blending together, marketing decisionmakers, media buyers, and agency leaders are looking upon real-world forms of advertising with fresh eyes – and liking what they find.

At Cannes Lions 2026, IRL Media’s Moment in the Sun

“The biggest takeaway for me was that the industry is moving back toward real-world connection,” Jim Norton, OUTFRONT CRO, Enterprise, told us. “That message was everywhere because it reflects a broader shift in how marketers are thinking. After years of digital saturation, AI-generated content, attribution complexity, and endless optimization, brands are once again looking for experiences that are real, shared, trusted, and culturally relevant.”

“Cannes itself is a perfect example of how B2B brands use IRL experiences to build relationships and influence long-term decisions,” he added. Even digitally native brands like Pinterest were all in on IRL experiences, hosting a series of activations meant to position the platform as the digital means by which people build their dream lives in the real world. “Brands are actively looking to move beyond screens and create experiences people can see, share, and remember.”

But URL-to-IRL wasn’t the only industry shift we observed in Cannes. “Marketers are moving beyond the false choice between brand and performance,” said Jim. “The future is brand that performs. Consumers don't think in channels. They simply live their lives. OUTFRONT is uniquely positioned to reach them throughout that daily journey and help brands own the entire real-world customer journey.”

IRL Media Measurement Is Having Its Moment

CTO Prem Purayil came away similarly inspired and optimistic. “The technology, data, and measurement ecosystem is evolving in ways that directly support where we are going as a company,” he said. “The conversations this year were less about why IRL matters, and much more about how to connect it, measure it, and scale it.”

“Measurement conversations have moved forward in a meaningful way,” he observed. “The focus is shifting from post-campaign validation to embedding measurement directly into planning, selling, and optimization. It’s becoming part of the core product experience, not something that sits alongside it.”

Prem told us that in the programmatic DOOH realm, there’s opportunity in connecting the buying experience across real-world channels, “a broader vision of stitching together the IRL journey across environments such as in-car, transit, roadside, venues, and retail…as a single, connected buy that reflects how consumers actually move through the world, rather than as a collection of isolated media placements. We are moving toward a world where IRL media is fully connected to the broader media ecosystem, measurable within the same frameworks as other major channels, and easier to plan, buy, and optimize at scale.”

“The industry no longer needs to be convinced that IRL matters,” Prem concluded. “The focus is now on making it work within modern media systems.”

Jim had his own thoughts on what comes next. “It is clear that brand CMOs need to be able to answer for their IRL activities,” he said. “Brand CEOs are going to be asking their CMOs, ‘What is our IRL strategy?’. This is going to be led from the brands, and not the agencies. The agencies’ job will be to help the CMOs defend that strategy with proper planning, buying, and measurement.”

IRL for Good: Live Workshop at Cannes Lions

We’re true believers in the power of IRL advertising not only to do right by brands, but to do good in the world. Much to our delight, it turns out we’re not alone.

That’s what we learned while hosting the first-ever IRL for Good Live Workshop along with David Sable of Stagwell and our friends from the Ad Council. Together with creative legend Susan Credle and brand leaders like Andrew Essex of the Wall Street Journal and Lara Cohen of Cloudflare, we explored how real-world media can support mental health through the next iteration of the Love, Your Mind campaign. We’ve committed $1 million to bring those ideas to life.

Elsewhere IRL at Cannes Lions with OUTFRONT

We were booked and busy at Cannes Lions this year, with plenty more highlights worthy of a mention.

OUTFRONT CEO Nick Brien joined other industry leaders on a panel hosted by Informa and moderated by WPP’s Joanne Wilson. Their conversation covered the value of live face-to-face experiences, AI, and how brands will build trust with, and engage, audiences of the future.

“When discovery, recommendations, and purchasing decisions are increasingly influenced by algorithms, trust becomes the scarcest asset,” Nick said. “The companies that win won't just have the best products. they’ll have the strongest reputation, the clearest point of view, and the most meaningful real-world presence. That's why live experiences and IRL engagement aren't marketing luxuries; they're trust-building infrastructure, especially for enterprise brands."

Chief Marketing & Experience Officer Stacy Minero sat down with Marketing Brew’s Kelsey Sutton for a thoughtful conversation about repositioning out of home as IRL media, and leaning into the power of presence, and the power of real-world brand experiences.

OUTFRONT also joined forces with Forbes to celebrate 2026’s Top Creators in the pages of their magazine and in real life on our canvases, celebrating today’s most essential online voices – from MrBeast to Ms. Rachel – at Influential Beach.


And speaking of influential – we also surprised Cannes with our first ever “IRL Drop,” a hat collab with lifestyle brand Siegelman Stables.


We were also an official sponsor of the star-studded Luma Blanc “La Grande Réception” party, where partygoers sipped the official OUTFRONT cocktail: the IRL, made with ice, reposado tequila, and lime (with simple syrup and seltzer water).


OUTFRONT was also credited with a Cannes Lions win for the billboard campaign supporting Steph Curry’s memoir, Shot Ready, which ingeniously used the rising moon to represent a basketball in flight. Congratulations as well to Known and Penguin Random House’s One World imprint for the Bronze award in the “Breakthrough on a Budget” category.

Last, but most definitely not least, we had a buzzy billboard of our own in the heart of it all, provoking thought and conversation with an absolute mic drop of a tagline: You Can’t AI IRL.

Did you come back from Cannes Lions as inspired as we did? Contact OUTFRONT today to act on it!

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

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