Lamar’s Ian Dallimore: OOH Is the ‘Anti-Algorithm’ That Unites Consumers Around Brands
CANNES, France — While digital advertising serves increasingly personalized content to fragmented individual audiences, out-of-home advertising creates shared brand experiences that bring consumers together — a distinction that grows more valuable as digital fatigue accelerates.
“If you and I are sitting here having a conversation, if we were to open our mobile device, the ads that were served would look significantly different. But out of home, it’s a powerful presence. It’s something you visually see and we collectively as consumers all get to be a part of that brand,” Ian Dallimore, vp of Digital Growth & gm of Programmatic at Lamar, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “Most importantly, then go on to social, to CTV to learn more about that story that they see on their journey.”
This communal quality positions out-of-home as a complement to digital campaigns rather than a competitor, creating curiosity that drives consumers deeper into brand storytelling across streaming and search environments.
Physical presence counters digital exhaustion
Consumer exhaustion with scrolling and streaming creates openings for physical brand presence that earns attention through environmental integration rather than algorithmic targeting.
“There’s this notion of digital fatigue. We live in a scroll, we live in streaming platforms that exist out there, but the one thing that’s really started to emerge more and more is the power of out-of-home and the power of being in that environment and being a physical presence,” Dallimore said.
Community integration during sporting events and daily consumer journeys enables brands to appear organically in ways digital channels cannot replicate.
Real-time creative capitalizes on cultural moments
Programmatic out-of-home enables brands to respond instantly to cultural moments through dynamic creative deployment, with FIFA World Cup and New York Knicks victories demonstrating how timely market presence amplifies brand relevance.
“The moment the Knicks won, go live all throughout New York and go live. Same thing with FIFA World Cup. As different teams play, those brands should morph and change what that creative message is based on the countries, the way that the country views a brand,” Dallimore said.
This real-time flexibility represents programmatic out-of-home’s most powerful standalone capability beyond its complementary digital role.
OOH and CTV complete brand storytelling
Out-of-home and connected TV combine to create complete narrative arcs that move consumers from initial awareness through detailed product understanding toward active search and purchase consideration.
“You’ll have a Defender and you’ll have this beautiful creative of a Defender climbing a mountain and it just says Defender on it. And then next thing you know, you’re watching Hulu and there’s a streaming ad and it tells the story on how that Defender has rock climbing capabilities,” Dallimore said. “And then that consumer will then go on a search or an LLM to learn even deeper about it.”
Data-driven retargeting connects out-of-home exposed audiences to subsequent CTV campaigns, creating measurable cross-channel journey continuity.
Programmatic OOH misconceptions
Brands purchasing programmatic out-of-home without strategic screen selection risk appearing in irrelevant environments, mirroring online advertising’s brand safety challenges where inventory quality varies significantly across the ecosystem.
“In the programmatic ecosystem, if you’re not cautious and you’re not strategically thinking about what you’re buying, you could be buying screens that are completely irrelevant to your brand,” Dallimore said. “Understanding what specific medium you’re buying — very parallel to the online universe. It takes a second step and more education, but it’s still the simplicity of buying through a platform.”
You’re watching “Dispatches from Cannes Lions 2026: Interviews on Innovation”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Alliant, Axonet, Clear Channel, DoorDash Ads, Future, GSTV, IAS, Kroger Precision Marketing, Lamar, Mirakl, Nextdoor, OOH Connect, Quan, Shinka, Teads, Tatari, Uber Advertising, Vistar Media, WunderKIND Ads, and Yahoo. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France — While digital advertising serves increasingly personalized content to fragmented individual audiences, out-of-home advertising creates shared brand experiences that bring consumers together — a distinction that grows more valuable as digital fatigue accelerates.
“If you and I are sitting here having a conversation, if we were to open our mobile device, the ads that were served would look significantly different. But out of home, it’s a powerful presence. It’s something you visually see and we collectively as consumers all get to be a part of that brand,” Ian Dallimore, vp of Digital Growth & gm of Programmatic at Lamar, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “Most importantly, then go on to social, to CTV to learn more about that story that they see on their journey.”
This communal quality positions out-of-home as a complement to digital campaigns rather than a competitor, creating curiosity that drives consumers deeper into brand storytelling across streaming and search environments.
Physical presence counters digital exhaustion
Consumer exhaustion with scrolling and streaming creates openings for physical brand presence that earns attention through environmental integration rather than algorithmic targeting.
“There’s this notion of digital fatigue. We live in a scroll, we live in streaming platforms that exist out there, but the one thing that’s really started to emerge more and more is the power of out-of-home and the power of being in that environment and being a physical presence,” Dallimore said.
Community integration during sporting events and daily consumer journeys enables brands to appear organically in ways digital channels cannot replicate.
Real-time creative capitalizes on cultural moments
Programmatic out-of-home enables brands to respond instantly to cultural moments through dynamic creative deployment, with FIFA World Cup and New York Knicks victories demonstrating how timely market presence amplifies brand relevance.
“The moment the Knicks won, go live all throughout New York and go live. Same thing with FIFA World Cup. As different teams play, those brands should morph and change what that creative message is based on the countries, the way that the country views a brand,” Dallimore said.
This real-time flexibility represents programmatic out-of-home’s most powerful standalone capability beyond its complementary digital role.
OOH and CTV complete brand storytelling
Out-of-home and connected TV combine to create complete narrative arcs that move consumers from initial awareness through detailed product understanding toward active search and purchase consideration.
“You’ll have a Defender and you’ll have this beautiful creative of a Defender climbing a mountain and it just says Defender on it. And then next thing you know, you’re watching Hulu and there’s a streaming ad and it tells the story on how that Defender has rock climbing capabilities,” Dallimore said. “And then that consumer will then go on a search or an LLM to learn even deeper about it.”
Data-driven retargeting connects out-of-home exposed audiences to subsequent CTV campaigns, creating measurable cross-channel journey continuity.
Programmatic OOH misconceptions
Brands purchasing programmatic out-of-home without strategic screen selection risk appearing in irrelevant environments, mirroring online advertising’s brand safety challenges where inventory quality varies significantly across the ecosystem.
“In the programmatic ecosystem, if you’re not cautious and you’re not strategically thinking about what you’re buying, you could be buying screens that are completely irrelevant to your brand,” Dallimore said. “Understanding what specific medium you’re buying — very parallel to the online universe. It takes a second step and more education, but it’s still the simplicity of buying through a platform.”
You’re watching “Dispatches from Cannes Lions 2026: Interviews on Innovation”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Alliant, Axonet, Clear Channel, DoorDash Ads, Future, GSTV, IAS, Kroger Precision Marketing, Lamar, Mirakl, Nextdoor, OOH Connect, Quan, Shinka, Teads, Tatari, Uber Advertising, Vistar Media, WunderKIND Ads, and Yahoo. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
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