Digiday Media Buying Summit

Please pick up your badges at the registration desk.

Join us as the editorial team kicks off the event with the state of the industry.

Join Will Mestayer of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Sara Owens of AXM as they discuss the challenges facing both media buyers and marketers, including measurability, automation and agentic AI.

Search as we know it is being fundamentally upended by AI. Christine Schrader, VP of Strategic Innovation at Wpromote, will explore how AI’s deep integration into search engines and user interfaces is transforming the way people discover information, products, and services. Here’s what the industry should know about this blooming area of buying — even if it’s to acknowledge that there’s a lot still unknown.

In this panel, Cognitiv and Yahoo DSP share how they teamed up to innovate with AI-powered contextual advertising. Hear how this collaboration drove impressive results for a leading Pet Care brand’s contextual campaigns, achieving CPAs nearly 90% below benchmark while driving real business impact. Learn how Yahoo leveraged Cognitiv’s contextual technology to fuel smarter targeting and what innovations are on the horizon.

There are the holdcos and then there are companies like Meet the People, which has purchased multiple agencies over the years to assemble what looks like a mini-holdco but acts very independently. Hear its founder explain the market approach, the value and role of tech, the need to tread carefully with AI and what’s no longer needed in a media agency.

Retail media is at an inflection point, evolving into a myriad of opportunities across retail sites and platforms, but also creating the challenge of knowing how to effectively allocate budgets across many different channels. Hear from Adam Silverblatt, Head of Off-Platform Ad Sales & Strategy at Instacart, on how the industry can approach the next phase of retail media to overcome the complexity of a fragmented landscape and deliver measurable omnichannel results.

Jenny Penich, President NA at Influencer, will discuss effective strategies for influencer and creator marketing, including how to identify the right partners, craft compelling campaigns, measure impact beyond vanity metrics, and foster authentic relationships that resonate with target audiences and drive measurable results. As the creator economy continues to grow, how is the playbook changing?

Grab a coffee and connect with your peers before the Town Hall.

5:05pm: Realtor.com – Unpacking the Mover Mindset: What Brands Need to Know

Enjoy a cold beverage before publishers head into 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.

We have a table reserved at Tia Carmen for those without dinner plans.

Grab a bite to eat before Day 2 sessions begin.

Hear from Mastercard’s Nili Klenoff about how its approach to strategic retail media investments has informed the company’s commerce media network, and how it’s helping advertisers cut through the thicket of commerce and retail media options.

In this session, Butler/Till’s Amanda DeVito and Collective Measures ‘ Allison Bakken will discuss how employee-owned agencies are fostering talent, driving transparency, and building sustainable growth in the digital age.

TV is far from dead—it’s evolving. Tatari’s Devin Goudey sits down with DAC’s Maura Pierson to explore how agencies are rethinking the role of television in modern media plans. From balancing linear and streaming to blending direct and programmatic buys, they’ll discuss how data-driven execution and smarter measurement are helping agencies prove TV’s halo effect and why the channel remains a catalyst for performance across every touchpoint.

Join Eric Beane, chief analytics and data officer at VML, as he explores the dynamic landscape of data utilization in today’s media buying. This session will delve into the latest trends and ever-evolving use cases, revealing how data is continuously reshaping strategy, optimization, and measurement in the pursuit of greater media effectiveness.

Media and digital teams are awash in data — but not always better decisions. Conflicting metrics, disconnected platforms, and analysis overload often stall campaigns and dilute impact.

This session reveals how connecting insights across audience strategy, targeting, activation, and measurement turns complexity into confidence. You’ll meet the Data Navigator — a modern media strategist who filters noise, connects data, and drives confident action.

Learn how to cut through the clutter, align analytics with outcomes, and make faster, sharper media decisions that actually deliver results.

Come behind the scenes and learn how Movers+Shakers consistently drives viral reach for brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics, Tinder and Staples. There’s an art to reading the cultural tea leaves, building social-native creative, and unleashing it in the right place at the right time. Creative agency Movers+Shakers will open up its playbook so you can learn how to create culture, not just follow trends.

Grab a coffee and connect with your peers before the Town Hall begins.

Open to All.

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

Grab a bite to eat before general sessions begin.

Independent Known started off as a small agency that hired data scientists to help leverage social opportunities for clients. As they built the Skeptic platform, the mission got bigger and bigger. What’s it capable of today?

The programmatic landscape is undergoing a rapid and irreversible transformation. With the deprecation of third-party cookies on the horizon, a new era of targeting is emerging. This session will explore critical strategies shaping the future of programmatic, from contextual to AI-enabled lookalike modeling.

Cheil recently created the Cheil Agency Network, formed out of a new media shop, Attention Arc, studio Cylndr, and other agencies. Hear how the two agencies employ generative AI to create more effective campaigns for clients quickly — but also avoid the dangers that come with AI.

Canadian investor firm Know Co. deliberately takes minority stakes in agencies across North America, helping them to access tech they can’t afford. How is it doing well by doing good? Its founder explains the strategy and the results.