DPAA Expands Board: Adds Digital Media, Programmatic Experts
DPAA on Tuesday will announce that Iván Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, and Jean-Christophe (JC) Conti, CEO of VIOOH, have joined the global trade group’s board of directors.
It’s not easy to join the board. The board’s committee must nominate the industry leaders for consideration, and all board members then vote to elect the nominees. There are 18 members, and each elected board member serves up to one three-year term.
OOH is expected to grow 21% in 2021, according to Brian Wieser, president of intelligence for GroupM. A recent Dentsu report notes that OOH will experience the largest growth of all media this year, excluding cinema.
“At Verizon Media, we’re seeing a surge of interest in dynamic ad signs, as well as consumers constantly demanding innovation,” Markman said. “We’re among the first global advertising platforms to connect to the DOOH ecosystem and help the category grow.”
DPAA has been at the forefront of bringing digital expertise to the OOH industry. Markman aims to help advance the media. In fact, it will become his main focus during the next six months.
Markman oversees the B2B business at Verizon Media and leads efforts to create valuable relationships between consumers, publishers, and marketers across advertising and content delivery technologies. During the past 20 years he has been involved with various boards that are tied to growth and innovation.
Before joining Verizon, Markman served as a special advisor to the CEO and board of directors at Comscore, where he helped lead the organization through an operational turnaround. Prior to that, he led marketing services at Neustar, which had acquired analytics pioneer MarketShare, where Markman was COO.
Earlier in his career, Markman held senior roles in ad-technology companies including Overture and Yahoo.
Conti leads a team of digital out-of-home and ad-tech experts who develop and manage VIOOH’s platform, which connects buyers and sellers in a premium marketplace.
“It goes without saying that I want to help the industry go further faster, accelerate digital transformation across out-of-home, and support the growth of the wider global advertising industry with our specialist ad-tech expertise and digital OOH leadership position,” Conti said. “Maybe the best way to be most efficient and achieve this goal faster will be to first listen and discuss with my fellow colleagues, as a lot has already been done and it will be about doing the smartest things first.”
Conti believes the industry is navigating challenging times, but believes there are reasons to be optimistic.
As the pandemic continues, the way to consume services and goods is increasingly digital, and he firmly believes this trend will also apply to the way media buyers purchase OOH.
“I’ll be looking to support members in understanding the far-reaching benefits of programmatic OOH, which I believe is where the future of the industry lies,” he said.
Conti joined VIOOH as CEO when the business launched in 2018 and is responsible for driving continued growth.
Today, VIOOH trades programmatically in twelve markets across the US, Europe and APAC. He is an established industry leader, who champions digital transformation in OOH through the use of programmatic and open real-time bidding technology. Earlier in his career, Conti held senior roles in various media and ad-technology companies including AppNexus and Yahoo.
Combined, Markman and Conti bring more than 45 years of experience to DPAA’s diverse board.
The DPAA’s board of directors foster deeper connections across the industry, as well as with global advertising supply, demand and creative omni-channel partners. The board aims to encourage innovation, accountability, attribution and programmatic capabilities in the space.
Specific initiatives the group is working on include:
- Increased automation, digitization, and programmatic trading growth of OOH throughout the world, through education, white papers, training and facilitation.
- Global expansion of the organization, DPAA just held its inaugural China event in Shanghai, and CEO, Barry Frey keynoted a major signage conference in Dubai.
- Managing and growing Women’s Empowerment in Digital Out of Home (WE.DOOH) series of webinars, guidance and peer to peer conversations among women in the sector.
- The DPAA Diversity and Inclusion Board, an initiative that includes a fellowship program with the IRTS Foundation, promoting Diversity in the sector, peer mentorship program and ad agency mentoring support.
- Helping members achieve the next level of audience measurement, post Nielsen.
- Education and guidance in a world without cookies and how that further empowers the OOH sector.
- Planning the DPAA Global Video Everywhere Summit taking place October 12 in New York.
