Observed Signal · Apr 21, 2026 · Awards · Source: Digiday · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Digiday Future Leader Awards 2026 Finalists Announced
Digiday, together with Glossy and Modern Retail, published the list of finalists for the 2026 Future Leader Awards, which recognizes rising leaders with ten years of experience or less across marketing, media and product disciplines. Highlighted finalists include Seojoon Oh (senior product manager at Uber), Natasha Macri (senior director of marketing partnerships at Time) and Katie Zaro (omnichannel marketing manager at eos). The announcement describes finalists’ work—Seojoon Oh’s platforms supporting Uber’s $1.7 billion advertising business, Macri’s scaling of Time’s partnership pipeline and Zaro’s DTC site redesign and CRM gains—and lists nominees across multiple categories (e.g., product, media, content, AI, audio, e‑commerce, technology). The piece is an industry recognition of emerging talent shaping measurement, partnerships and omnichannel experiences.
Recognition of rising leaders across media, marketing and product signals talent and capability trends relevant to hiring, partnerships and publisher/brand strategies, but does not change industry infrastructure or policy.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Digiday, Glossy and Modern Retail presented the 2026 Future Leader Awards finalists.
- Seojoon Oh, senior product manager at Uber, is a finalist in Rising Product Leader; his teams build first-party attribution, a real-time KPI streaming hub and a semantic data layer supporting Uber’s $1.7 billion advertising ecosystem.
- Natasha Macri, senior director of marketing partnerships at Time, is a finalist in Rising Media Leader for scaling Time’s U.S. pre-sale marketing and partnership pipeline.
- Katie Zaro, omnichannel marketing manager at eos, is a finalist in Rising Content Marketing Leader for DTC site redesign, launching the brand’s first blog, and CRM/email & SMS growth.
- The article publishes the complete list of finalists across many categories (Agency, AI, Audio, Brand, Creator, Design, E‑commerce, Finance, Founder, Influencer, Innovator, Marketing, Media Buying, Product, Retail, Sales, Social, Technology, Video).
Connected Companies & Entities
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Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Uber, Time and eos Are 2026 Future Leader Finalists
Digiday, Glossy and Modern Retail published the finalists for the 2026 Future Leader Awards, which recognize rising leaders with ten years of experience or less across marketing, product, media and related disciplines. Highlighted finalists include Seojoon Oh (senior product manager at Uber), who leads engineering teams building a first-party attribution system, a real-time KPI streaming hub and a semantic data layer that support Uber’s $1.7 billion advertising ecosystem and privacy-first marketing tools; Natasha Macri (senior director of marketing partnerships at Time), who runs Time’s U.S. pre-sale marketing engine and has scaled the publisher’s partnership pipeline and ad revenue; and Katie Zaro (omnichannel marketing manager at eos), who led a DTC website redesign, launched the brand’s first blog and grew email and SMS CRM performance. The article includes the full list of finalists across multiple Rising categories.
Digitas, Five Below, January Digital Win 2026 Future Leader Awards
Digiday announced the winners of the 2026 Future Leader Awards on May 5, 2026. The awards recognize emerging leaders (10 years of experience or less) across marketing, media, retail and agency roles. The announcement highlights profile winners including Ameera Masud (associate director of social strategy at Digitas), Cecilia Snider (Five Below) and Raquelle Kleiman (January Digital), and publishes a complete list of category winners spanning new categories such as Rising AI Leader and Rising Audio Leader. The winners were recognized for contributions including modernizing retail replenishment with AI, scaling affiliate practices into major growth engines, and translating online culture into audience engagement.
Digiday Announces 2026 Media Buying & Planning Finalists
Digiday published the list of finalists for the 2026 Digiday Media Buying and Planning Awards on June 2, 2026. Finalists span agencies, brands, publishers and technology vendors across categories including Media Campaign of the Year, Media Plan of the Year and Best Omnichannel Campaign. Highlighted nominations include Uber Advertising’s full‑funnel holiday campaign for Diageo; the NFL and CBS/Paramount+ for the “Count on Sundays” 360 campaign; and WPP Media & Mazda for the docuseries “First to the Finish,” which reported 16 million minutes watched and nearly 587,000 full-series viewers. The awards also feature new AI-related categories (Best AI Platform; Best Creative Use of AI; Best Use of AI in Planning/Search) and recognize campaigns using omnichannel, CTV, DOOH and data-driven tactics.
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