Digital Marketing

A Global Trade Marketing Association; Interview with President and CEO of DPAA, Barry Frey

A Global Trade Marketing Association

DPAA is a global trade marketing association. In this TechBullion interview with Barry Frey, president and CEO of DPAA, we had the opportunity to discuss how DPAA is connecting out-of-home media with the advertising community.

Please tell us more about yourself.

Barry Frey, President, CEO of DPAA.  I guess I’d say, I’m a student of media and marketing as well as a professor of the same.  I’ve worked hard to provide leadership throughout my career and at the same time, I’m consistently curious and always learning about new technologies, strategies and opportunities for these exciting sectors.  In some ways, I’ve always had similar roles-helping media companies, brands and ad agencies understand and embrace the new tech and innovations that have supported active business growth.  I did this in the early days at Turner Broadcasting, helping to build TBS and TNT then went on to help build domestic and global media and digital USA Network, The Syfy Channel, Euronews, The  Hallmark Channel, The NBA and Cablevision.

How did you first start working in Digital Out of Home Advertising?

I was recruited by the board of directors for the DPAA for the role of President, CEO. My experience working across all media sectors and doing this on a local, domestic, and global basis informed me well to help lead the amazing innovative and digital opportunities that Out of Home has before us today.

 What is DPAA and what unique services do you provide members?

DPAA is the global trade and marketing association representing all members of the Out of Home advertising ecosystem.  Our mission is to promote ad spend to the sector via promoting the industry’s digitization. Membership includes media owners, ad tech/programmatic firms, data and research companies, media agencies, content providers, hardware, software and systems integrators and more. We provide meaningful connections, guidance and support services to help our members grow their companies. Additionally, we promote and showcase the growing role of Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising in a brands’ omnichannel strategies.  Uniquely, we are global, digital and act as consultant, concierge, connector and community to our members.

Could you give us a walkthrough of the DPAA ecosystem and how digital-out-of-home works, the prevalent problems and different solutions?

In the earlier question I described the components of the ecosystem.  When we actively promote DOOH, we encourage adoption of platforms, programmatic services for demand and supply, new forms of digital data, digital targeting capabilities, programming content, dynamic ad serving and digital screens.  All of these provide greater value equations for the brands and agencies.

How big is the current global ad tech market and what are the most popular trends since the pandemic?

Coming through Covid, as an industry we quickly learned resilience, reinvention and revitalization.  As we’ve seen in so many parts of our personal and business world, Covid put added speed to innovation that was going to happen anyway.  One of OOH’s true superpowers flourished during Covid and that is DOOH programmatic buying and selling.  Without a whole lot of negotiation, contracts, time and effort, advertisers were able to move schedules to audiences as consumer and traffic patterns changes.  Additionally, much more precise targeting has emerged for our sector, now delivering and counting audience demographics similar to other media.  Of course, also many attribution systems emerging, showing the power of OOH to deliver value up and down the marketing funnel.

Can you tell us more about how DPAA fosters collaboration between the DOOH community and ad agencies?

DPAA provides education and connections between the DOOH community and ad agencies. We host lunch and learns, interview and introduce agency executives for our video interview series and at our myriad streaming and in-person events. This helps educate all members, brands, full service and out of home agencies on the latest innovation in OOH today while at the same time helping our members realize what agencies are looking for in an OOH solution.

Tell us more about your “Video Everywhere” marketing campaign, what is it all about?

Video Everywhere is the name of our annual event as in many ways the theme of the association. Video Everywhere speaks to the fact that video content and advertising is broadly sought after by consumers and advertisers on all platforms and digital out of home screens offer significant touch points on a consumer’s and brand’s journey.

What is the future of DOOH and what is the growing role of programmatic in marketing success?

The future is bright for DOOH. The industry was set to have its biggest year before the pandemic and increasingly estimates from the major agency groups show the industry coming back to 2019 levels in their near future. Programmatic will be a key to DOOH growth as it has for all digital media

What is next on your roadmap for DPAA?

 More international expansion. DPAA is a global trade group as digital practices, tech, strategies and tactics easily crosses borders. Our global members can share best practices and knowledge and information. We’ve always had global members, however, interest in the association is increasing and we’ll be setting up hubs around the world.

For more information, visit the website: https://dpaaglobal.com/

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