Why I’m So Excited for This Year’s OBIE Awards

The OBIE Awards are coming back to New York City on October 15, and this year, we’re making a night of it.

There are some events you work on that, somewhere along the way, start to feel bigger than just an event. That’s how I feel about this year’s OBIE Awards.

On October 15, we’re bringing the 84th Annual OBIE Awards to The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It’s the first time in a long time that the OBIEs will be celebrated in New York, separate from the OOH Media Conference, and I can’t think of a more fitting place for them.

New York’s connection to out of home runs deep. In 1835, printer Jared Bell began producing some of the earliest large-format outdoor posters in the city, helping establish a form of advertising that would eventually transform streets and public spaces around the world. Nearly two centuries later, New York remains one of the most iconic OOH markets anywhere and a global center of creativity, culture and advertising.

That connection feels especially meaningful this year. Earlier this year, OAAA introduced The Human Medium, our new positioning for out of home and an articulation of what has always made this medium different. Out of Home is for humans. It is built into the places where people live, work and move. It creates shared experiences and connects ideas with people in the real world.

Celebrating the OBIEs at MoMA brings so much of that together: the history of our medium, the creative energy of New York and the ideas shaping what OOH can become next.

For 84 years, the OBIEs have celebrated the best in OOH creativity. The very first Best of Show went to Coca-Cola’s “Yes Girl” in 1942, when billboards were painted by hand. Since then, the canvases may have transformed, but the challenge at the heart of the work has remained remarkably consistent: create an idea powerful enough to earn someone’s attention in the real world.

That incredible history has carried the OBIEs through every evolution of the medium, and today, the creative possibilities feel infinite. Buildings can become canvases. Transit systems can become experiences. Screens can respond to what is happening around them. Technology, data and AI are giving creatives more ways to use place, context and scale to create something people notice, remember and talk about.

That’s the spirit we wanted this year’s OBIEs to capture. Not simply an awards ceremony, but a true celebration of creativity and the people behind it. And if we were going to bring the OBIEs back to New York and give them a night of their own, we wanted to make it a real party.

The celebration will begin just steps from MoMA, where Solomon Partners will host a pre-OBIE cocktail reception at 53 NYC before we make our way to the museum. Once inside MoMA, I’m especially excited about the two people who will lead us through the night.

Susan Credle and David Shing are joining us as hosts, bringing two incredible creative careers and perspectives to the OBIE stage.

This has been an especially meaningful year for Susan, who was awarded the Lion of St. Mark at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, one of the industry’s highest creative honors. It is the latest recognition in a career that has helped shape modern advertising. From creating the iconic M&M’s characters early in her career at BBDO to leading creative at Leo Burnett and FCB, Susan has been behind some of the industry’s most memorable work.

And then there’s Shingy. I’ve had the privilege of working with him for many years. He has been a tremendous advocate and champion for OOH, always pushing our industry to think bigger about what this medium can make possible.

Together, Susan and Shingy bring the curiosity, creative ambition and genuine love of big ideas that the OBIEs are all about. I can’t wait to see them together on the MoMA stage.

And of course, a celebration like this shouldn’t end when the final award is handed out.

Thanks to Colossal, we’ll head into MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden for the official OBIE Awards party, with Questlove behind the DJ booth as we celebrate under the New York City sky.

Questlove. MoMA. The Sculpture Garden. The best creative work in OOH. An industry together in New York to celebrate it. I’m not sure we could have planned a better way to end the night.

For me, that combination is what makes this year feel so special. We’re honoring 84 years of creative history while celebrating a medium that has never had more opportunity. We’re recognizing extraordinary work while creating the kind of shared experience that OOH itself does so well.

That’s what I hope this year’s OBIEs will be: a celebration of where OOH has been, the creativity driving it today and the people who continue to move it forward.

I’ve been excited about this night since we first started planning it. Now that it’s almost here, I truly cannot wait.

See you at MoMA.