Digiday Media Buying Summit

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The agency business is undergoing its most profound identity shift in decades. As fee pressures, AI acceleration, consolidation and evolving client expectations collide, the traditional role of the agency as a client representative is giving way to a broader mandate. According to Forrester, 2026 marks an inflection point as agencies diversify into managed services, proprietary products, strategic partnerships and principal media—redefining what it means to buy, sell and deliver marketing. At the same time, marketing is moving back to the center of business decision-making, even as brands face the paradox of unprecedented data access alongside increasing difficulty in winning preference and driving growth.

In this keynote fireside chat, Omnicom Media North America CEO Ralph Pardo offers a candid, operator’s view of how these forces are reshaping media buying and agency models in real time. He will explore why this moment creates both risk and opportunity, the strategic thinking behind Omnicom’s recent transformations, and how agencies can help clients create competitive distance rather than simply avoid disruption. The conversation will also cut through the hype around AI and data to examine how they are truly impacting marketing today—and where real value is being created when clients need outside-in thinking more than ever.

In this session, we’ll unpack the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Discover new strategies for enhancing content visibility and maintaining brand presence when AI summarizes search results directly.

Most CPG brands use retail data to look backward. Welch’s is using it to predict, model, and grow forward. This session focuses on how Welch’s partnered with Cognitiv to move beyond end-of-campaign measurement and instead, activate purchase data in-flight to uncover new audiences, increase household awareness, and drive incremental reach

Jared Belsky, CEO of Acadia, examines the rapid evolution of retail media networks as they transition from siloed search platforms into full-funnel, AI-driven ecosystems.

As holding companies rush to build proprietary AI “black boxes,” Crossmedia’s independence allows for a different path. This session explores how to use AI for media orchestration without surrendering the transparency that independent agencies are built upon.

Take a break, grab a coffee and connect with fellow attendees before the next session begins.

Agency and brand VIPs are invited to join us for a welcome drink and networking ahead of the 10-Minute Meetings.

The 10-Minute Meetings are designed to help connect participants with innovative technology platforms and build valuable business relationships.

Join us for a cocktail to wrap up Day 1. Open to All.

Fuel up with breakfast as we get the day started.

Albert Thompson, managing director of digital innovation at Walton Isaacson, explores how planners can evolve as AI agents begin to automate the core mechanics of the supply chain.

Scott Shamberg, CEO of Mile Marker, demonstrates how to blend classic media with cutting-edge digital tactics to create a cohesive, high-performance consumer journey.

Trevis Milton of Apollo Partners and Domenic Venuto of Horizon Media discuss the strategic development of in-house AI systems designed to solve unique brand challenges. The conversation explores how moving beyond off-the-shelf tools allows agencies to build modular, autonomous infrastructure that adapts fluidly to evolving client needs and data environments.

Phil Case, President of Max Connect Digital, and Daniel Scarpino, CMO of Austin Post Clothing, break down the transition from traditional bidding to AI-driven “agentic” performance tactics that prioritize real-time consumer intent.

Take a break, grab a coffee and connect with fellow attendees before the next session begins.

Recharge with a delicious lunch and network with peers before the next session.

Open to select VIP participants.

Grab a drink before the 10-Minute meetings begin. Open to VIP participants.

Grab a cocktail and meet other event attendees. Open to all.

Fuel up with breakfast as we get the day started.

For too long, marketers have played a losing game, buying costly attention to disguise bad creative. But the modern media model has done a 180: flipping from paid-owned-earned (P.O.E) to owned-earned-paid (O.E.P.). It’s more than a flowchart or a reconfigured acronym; it’s an arbitrage strategy that’s proven to work.

By leveraging your owned social channels as a high-speed, zero-cost content lab, you can identify and prove what truly resonates with your audience. This Organic validation acts as a powerful filter, allowing you to bypass guesswork and deploy paid media exclusively on content that is already generating momentum and has been vetted by consumers. In this session, Jason Loomis, SVP and Head of Media at Chukmedia and a client partner, will provide a strategic playbook for moving from costly assumptions to proven, scalable relevance, ensuring every media dollar spent multiplies your impact.

Join Heather Murphy, VP of Consumer Brand & Engagement at Collective Measures, and Spencer Jahnke, Director of Digital Marketing at Room & Board, for a deep dive into the intersection of cutting-edge technology and authentic brand storytelling.

Hear from brands and agency executives on how they are structuring their relationships and workflows to jointly develop and deploy powerful AI media strategies. 

In an era of rising CPCs and fluctuating ad algorithms, the wall between Paid and Organic search is a luxury agencies can no longer afford. This session, led by Digitas’ head of organic search, Elena MacGurn, will discuss how to leverage SEO data to inform bidding strategies and how to use PPC insights to fast-track content authority.