Advanced Advertising is no longer advanced. It’s just TV advertising.

At least, that was the sentiment of advertising executives across television and digital who came together for the NYC TV Week conference for a day of programming on addressable TV advertising, which enables brands to target consumers according to behavior and preference. For example, cat food ads will be served directly to cat food owners and soon-to-be parents will see ads for SUVs, as opposed to a new convertible.

“The fact that we’re still all talking about linear, OTT, addressable … who cares,” said Nicolle Pangis, CEO of Ampersand (formerly NCC Media). “It should be about who are we trying to reach, what are the campaign goals we’re trying to accomplish and match those two things. We are confusing the agencies and we are making it harder than it needs to be.”

“Nobody on the consumer side is thinking that way,” Pangis added.

Many of the panelists echoed Pangis’, streamlining the process for the agencies is one of the biggest hurdles in the advancement of addressability, as well as the continued existence of walled gardens, which are closed ecosystems of technology, like a Facebook or Google.

Here’s a look at what was said about addressability at NYC TV Week:

Why Addressability Matters

Carmen Graf, Head of Global Advertising & Media, Indeed: “We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on television. It’s a primary medium for us, super important from scale, awareness, brand recall, and building long-term memory awareness. There’s also a lot of light television viewers out there, especially from the 30-40 year olds…We have to make sure that we’re extending our reach against that audience and addressable is a way for us to do that.”

Gina Mingioni, VP, Head of Strategy & Operations, Comcast Advertising: TV is still unmatched from a scale quality and engagement standpoint. And what the digital folks have done really well is bring data targeting and measurement attribution and those are all the things we’re bringing to TV and we’ve talked a lot about data and targeting and the other key component is measuring the results and proving the impact with running a TV campaign.

How to Make It Easier for Advertisers

Mingioni: “To really bring addressable advertising to TV, we need to scale. And we need to work together across the TV ecosystem to do that. No one group can do it themselves. This is a very complex solution we are bringing to TV, so that’s about bringing simplicity.”

Julian Zilberbrand, EVP, Advanced Media, Viacom: “When we talk about setting baselines and standards, we have to think about it holistically, consider all these varying variations. Ultimately, I think we should crawl before we run and get to the point where we can use some of the information from the analytics we’re gathering to get better at what we’re doing and optimize where we’re going. We can get there by creating this typical relationship sharing of information, which allows you to then ultimately have a better experience across the board for your clients, for the seller, for the advertiser, the agency, everyone has a better experience that way."

Helen Katz, SVP, Global Contracts and Data Partnerships, Publicis Spine: “How we are defining the target audience needs to be standardized.”

On Walled Gardens:

Lance Neuhauser, CEO, 4C: “I think it’s important to note that these walled gardens, these closed ecosystems, are growing in strength. We don’t define them as just as Facebook, Amazon, Google… some of the TV groups are moving into more of a ‘closed ecosystem’ as well. Why is that the case? The demands on time and people are under more pressure than ever before and so their yearning for more personalization than ever before. In certain environments, personalization applies in opposition to the demand for more privacy and data protection than ever before. By the same token, marketers are willing to invest into that personalization because they know it’s necessary and will put their brand in a better light but they also need more transparency into what's driving that than ever before.”

Zilberbrand: “It’s not rocket science to pool information. Where the challenge is … there’s a trust issue in the market, not everyone is sharing information in total. There are a lot of walled gardens in the space, in that environment, you’re not looking at every bit of information in it... There are still holes in measurement.”

What’s In Store For The Future

Sean Moran, Head of Ad Solutions, Viacom: "Are you embracing fragmentation or are you trying to stave it off? We found a couple of years ago that it was time to embrace the fragmentation. … We’re in such a dynamic shifting world right now in our business."

Neuhauser: “Most would define [advanced advertising] as the ability to actually cherry-pick an impression and bid on it based on the value of what I’m actually able to create,” said Lance. “We are not advanced yet, we’re advancing.”

Katz: “In a year, we’ll have all of that, but by then our consumers will be three steps ahead of us and we’re going to have to figure out how to catch up with them again.”