Why Outfront Media’s top marketer is betting on experiences over AI

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At Cannes Lions, there are plenty of billboards advertising AI—and at least one taking aim at it.

“You can’t AI IRL” is the message emblazoned in all-caps on an installation from the nationwide out-of-home media company Outfront Media. It’s the first time the brand has run a billboard to market itself at the festival, according to Chief Marketing and Experience Officer Stacy Minero.

“Our whole positioning is around leaning into IRL media, which is a way that you connect with people through shared experiences and real-world exposure and taps into the power of presence,” she said.

Minero sat down with Marketing Brew at Cannes Lions to tell us more about repositioning OOH and why Outfront Media is making big bets on experiential marketing. Here are a few highlights.

On digital fatigue: We see that as a really strong signal that what we’re investing in and what we’re doing today is where the future’s headed. We’re investing in sports and experiential media. You can tap into our Stadium Surround offering if you want to be closer to the action when sports events are happening, so we partner with the World Cup and the Super Bowl to create opportunities for brands to activate in those moments.

Generally, we’re seeing that pullback as well…We just did a study with Kantar that we’re releasing after Cannes, where we saw 41% of people are flipping over their phone during dinners or events. You saw with the Knicks that people were galvanized in the streets—they were mobilized to come together, and that created a flywheel for social content. We see this gravitational pull toward physical experiences and connection, things in real life. That gives us a lot of validation around the strategy.

On making OOH part of the main menu: I started on the agency side, and I remember that OOH was always the party on the [media] plan. It was where the most creative ideas came to life, but it often was an afterthought…If you think about a menu, out-of-home is often dessert, and we think it should be in the apps and the entrees, because we know out-of-home and IRL media is a force multiplier for the whole plan.