DPAA Post Summit Recap 2025
François de Gaspé Beaubien, DPAA Chairman of the Board; Chairman & CCO of Zoom Media ● “As we move deeper into the age of AI, the barriers to entry for marketers are falling. Smaller brands can now play on the same field as the biggest ones — with confidence and creativity.”
- “DPAA recognizes the potency of AI, and we are embracing it — through learning systems like The Good AI Podcast, through knowledge-sharing across our community, and by spotlighting DOOH ad platforms making major investments in AI-assisted experiences.”
- “It’s an extraordinary time to be in media and DOOH. Transformation isn’t coming — it’s already here. With every month, innovation fuels new growth, new capabilities, and new opportunities.”
Barry Frey, President and CEO, DPAA
- “The taxi or the ride share you took to get here, your favorite bar, restaurant. And let’s not forget your grocery store, supermarket, electronics and big box retailers…where digital meets the real world! Brands are noticing that these points of interaction matter.” ● “In real life! In person! Face to face.This is where the magic happens!”
Nick Brien, CEO, OUTFRONT Media
- “There is a fundamental shift in the digital ecosystem. It is so significant that anyone in this room who doesn’t appreciate it will miss was this represents as one of the most systemic opportunities for us as an industry.”
- “It isn’t just about marketing to me as a consumer of products and services. It’s how you matter to me? I believe that marketing needs to move into the mattering industry. Because when you matter to me as a person and you matter to me as a member of the community, that is so powerful.”
Shiv Singh, Author, Marketing with AI for Dummies
- “AI is affecting every sub-function – transforming in two ways. The tools and technologies at our fingertips … and brand growth.”
- “The potential to use AI as a thought partner to analyze growth objectives is limitless.”
Jill Cress, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, H&R Block
- “AI is underhyped.”
- “Trust is a brand’s currency, full stop.”
- “As we think about trust, one of the things we talk a lot about is how do you balance leveraging AI for efficiency without eroding their long term trust?”
Chuck Todd, Political Analyst | Host, The Chuck ToddCast
- On current state of media and impact of AI:
○ “Mainstream media is always dead and rebirthing.”
○ “This is something I always say to my journalism friends and some of my media friends who are sort of worried that we can’t control technology. It’s going to happen. So, you deal with it and you work with it and you try to find the best ways to still do what you want to do in journalism with the technology that is there.”
○ “I take comfort in our history, meaning we’ve been through these moments before. The beginning of the industrial revolution was both exciting and
dislodging … I’m short term pessimistic, long term optimistic.”
○ “Real interaction, physical, live events will … become more of a premium.” ○ “Human interaction is a premium and in some ways we’re now realizing how important it is the more we automate our lives.”
- On local media:
○ “We’ve got to rebuild local … knocking out local media destroyed trust for all of us. We all trust local more than anything else because we can fact check it every day. Step outside and go ‘oh yeah, that was right, it IS raining.’”
○ “Bring back what I call service journalism. Which is, local journalism is there to help you live your life, not everyone has to be Bob Woodward, not everybody has to win a Pulitzer Prize … even if you strive to do that yourself that’s 10% of your life’s work; 90% is helping people live their lives as a public service in journalism.”
○ “Alexis De Tocqueville came over here to observe the American democracy in the 19th century. One of the things he marveled at was how devoted we were to our local press and our local politics; we’ve lost that. That’s what’s made our demo so different, more powerful in the eyes of outsiders.”
○ (Holding up his phone) “We’re all narcissistic; we all think what’s happening around us is so important we like to share it. Welcome to local news!”
Jessie Schwartzfarb, EVP Head of Video, Dentsu
- “My kid doesn’t see a DOOH ad and say ‘that’s a cool DOOH ad.’ She says ‘that’s a cool ad.’ She doesn’t see an ad on streaming and says ‘that’s a cool CTV ad.” She says ‘that’s a cool ad.’ We have to understand silos don’t exist for our consumers so how do we make them not exist for us?”
David Weinfeld, CEO, Screenverse
- “One of the biggest misnomers with DOOH is that it’s hard to measure.” ● “I can’t tell you how many times people tell me have you seen the billboards on Roku? Why can’t we advertise on those?”
Brian Cordes, Head of Client Partnerships, DIRECTV Advertising
- “A pause ad, which are blowing up right now in CTV, is basically a DOOH ad.”
Christiana Cacciapuoti, VP, Enterprise Strategy & Solutions, Madhive
- “Impressions are a proxy for outcomes.”
Michelle Garcia, Head of Marketing, Paramount+
- “We love how fast and data-driven DOOH is, how quickly we can get campaigns up and running, and we invest all year long. We are excited to try new things…”
Dana Nussbaum, Co-Head, Global Motion Picture Marketing, Warner Bros. ● “The thing that’s changed the most is really this idea that the relationship between earned media and paid media. Before they used to be completely distinct and separate, and I think there is more interconnectivity than ever between those two.” ● “Honestly, any medium we’re investing in has a digital component. Whether it’s outdoor or television, radio even. It all has a digital sort of thread through it.”
Christian Davin, Co-Head, Motion Picture Marketing, Warner Bros.
- “Each campaign itself is bespoke. But, within each campaign the audience is now diverse and experienced content in so many different ways. The message needs to meet the medium needs to meet the audience.”
- “I think AI in the production space still can’t match the creativity of an individual human. Where we have dabbled in AI with strict guidelines is sort of the research and development of how we want to think about creating environments. But that’s just a guide, the actual human artist goes in and creates the work in conjunction with our creative team…”
