At this year's Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, AI dominated the agenda. But beneath the excitement surrounding new technology, another theme quietly emerged across the week: the future of media isn't about choosing between digital and physical. It's about understanding how the two work together.

By the second conversation of the afternoon, a pattern had started to emerge.

Whether the discussion was about AI, measurement, creativity or media planning, speakers kept arriving at the same conclusion: the future of media won't be won by algorithms alone. It will belong to brands that combine technology with something AI can't replicate: a meaningful presence in the real world.

That idea became the thread running through billups' Out-of-Home (OOH) thought-leadership sessions at Cannes Lions 2026. Hosted on the Showcase Stage at Armani Caffè, the sessions brought together brand leaders, marketers, media owners, and technology partners to tackle one of the industry's biggest questions: where does media go next?

As each conversation unfolded, the same themes kept resurfacing: attention, measurement and trust. Different speakers approached them from different angles, but together they revealed an industry moving beyond the static digital-versus-physical debate. The conversation wasn't about choosing one over the other. It was about understanding how they work together.

The first discussion, between billups Global Chief Strategy Officer Ranga Somanathan and Michael Reynolds, Head of Omnichannel, US Biopharmaceuticals at AstraZeneca, explored the convergence of creativity, data and brand building. Rather than treating technology as the starting point, the conversation repeatedly returned to people.

"Where data, media and creativity genuinely come together is when you start thinking about the human first," Ranga said. "When you think about data first, or tech first, or creativity first, and you don't put the human first, you lose the relevance of what is meaningful for the individual."

It was a simple observation, but one that framed the rest of the afternoon.

As marketers gain access to more signals, automation, and measurement than ever before, competitive advantage no longer comes from having more data. It comes from understanding what that data reveals about human behaviour, and using it to create experiences people actually notice.

That distinction became even clearer when Ranga challenged one of advertising's most familiar metrics.

"Reach is how many people were around your communication. Attention is how many people were actually looking at you."

It neatly captured a broader shift happening across the industry. As digital channels become increasingly fragmented and data-driven, simply being seen is no longer enough. Brands need to earn attention, not assume it.

For CMOs, that changes the conversation. If attention has become a scarce resource, then every media investment must demonstrate not only that it reached an audience, but that it influenced one.

If the first conversation explored what captures attention, the second asked how that attention can be measured and ultimately linked to business outcomes.

Joining billups Global CEO David Krupp were Tal Jacobson, CEO of Perion, and Jim Norton, Chief Revenue Officer at Outfront. Coming from independent media, ad-tech and media ownership respectively, each offered a different perspective, yet their conclusions were aligned: accountability has become the new currency of media.

For decades, Out-of-Home has largely been viewed as an awareness channel. Advances in data and measurement are changing that perception.

"For the last hundred years, Out-of-Home has been viewed as an awareness medium," Krupp said. "It still is, but with the measurement advances the industry and billups in particular have made, we're recognising it as a true mid-funnel channel that can drive engagement, sales, store visits, web traffic and app downloads."

That evolution is already visible in the market. Some of today's most digital-native brands, including OpenAI, Canva, Spotify and HubSpot, are investing in OOH not because they lack digital reach, but because they understand what the medium uniquely signals. A billboard or airport takeover communicates scale, permanence and confidence in a way few digital formats can. It tells audiences: we're established, we're investing in our brand, and we're here to stay. More importantly, it builds trust. 

The implication extends well beyond Out-of-Home. As every marketing investment comes under greater financial scrutiny, channels increasingly need to prove not just that they generated impressions, but that they influenced real behaviour.

"We're now able to come back to CMOs and CFOs and articulate the actual ROI of the investment they're making," Krupp added. "In a world of dashboards and always-on analytics, Out-of-Home has to be seen at least at parity with every other media channel."

The final discussion turned to AI not as a headline, but as an enabler.

Joined by Patrick Callinan of T-Mobile Advertising Solutions and Sarah Larsen, CMO of Hisense USA, billups Chief Technology Officer Shawn Spooner explored how AI, mobility and measurement are creating a more connected media ecosystem, where physical and digital experiences increasingly reinforce one another.

While AI dominated many conversations across Cannes this year, Shawn offered a perspective that felt refreshingly grounded.

"AI gives us the ability to move at the speed of thought," he said. "It buys time for our people to spend more time on human brilliance to be strategic, build relationships and shape the future of our company."

The discussion wasn't really about AI saving time. It was about what the industry chooses to do with the time AI creates.

The same philosophy applies to measurement.

"Out-of-Home has become measurable like the rest of the media mix," Spooner said. "We can now understand how people move through the world, what they see, and what happens afterwards from store visits to app downloads and broader business outcomes."

Taken together, the conversations painted a remarkably consistent picture of where media is heading.

The boundaries between physical and digital are dissolving rather than competing. AI is accelerating planning and optimisation, but not replacing strategic judgement. Measurement has become the price of entry for every channel. And as attention fragments across an increasingly crowded digital landscape, trusted experiences in the physical world may become even more valuable, not less.

The opportunity now belongs to brands willing to rethink OOH not as a supporting channel, but as a strategic driver of attention, trust and business outcomes.

The medium has evolved into a data-enabled, measurable and accountable part of the modern media mix while retaining the qualities that have always made it distinctive: it exists in the real world, it is trusted, and it cannot be skipped.

Yet despite those advances, OOH still represents one of advertising's biggest opportunities, with investment yet to catch up to its expanding capabilities. 

Perhaps that was the biggest takeaway from the afternoon. The industry's challenge is no longer proving what OOH can do. It's making sure the wider media conversation reflects what the medium has already become.

By the end of the afternoon, one thing felt difficult to argue with. The future of media won't be decided by choosing between digital and physical. It will belong to the brands that understand how to make both work together and to an industry ready to rethink what OOH can contribute to that future.