Fragmentation: The Greatest Barrier to Efficiency

While the concept of Total TV is clear, its implementation faces multiple practical challenges, mainly due to the internal fragmentation within the industry. Teams, technologies, and metrics remain siloed, making it difficult to manage campaigns in an integrated way.

The reality of the industry is that media teams are still organized around separate structures (digital vs. traditional), and workflows reflect that divide. On top of that, the ecosystem includes platforms that are not always interoperable, and measurement models that vary across partners—making any unified analysis of campaign performance extremely challenging.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these barriers:

- Planning in silos

In many markets, campaign management still relies on spreadsheets, email chains, and isolated decisions by channel, team, or even format. Media plans are built from separate logics, with different briefs, partners, and objectives across traditional TV, CTV, and online video. This not only limits operational speed and the ability to optimize in real time, but also prevents leveraging synergies across environments and audiences.

Instead of building holistic campaigns that harness the combined value of all audiovisual channels, planning and buying are still approached as if each one operates independently—reducing effectiveness, increasing operational costs, and fragmenting the user experience.

- Disconnection between Creative, Media, and Data Teams

Each area works with different goals, timelines, and tools, which makes it difficult to design campaigns that fully leverage the potential of the medium. CTV creatives are rarely adapted to the context or to the available targeting capabilities, resulting in less relevant viewer experiences and underperforming outcomes.

Today, emerging technologies—such as generative AI applied to ad creation—make it possible to tailor messages, formats, and creative styles based on the environment, the audience, or even the moment of delivery.

- Challenges in activating First-Party Audiences in TV Environments

Despite the growing interest in leveraging first-party data, effectively activating it in environments like connected TV remains limited.

There are several reasons for this: from technical barriers that hinder integration between advertisers’ systems and media platforms, to the lack of agreements with publishers that would allow the use of first-party data within their advertising ecosystems.

On top of that, there’s fragmentation between the platforms that manage data (CDPs, DMPs) and those that execute media buying (DSPs, SSPs), making audience synchronization difficult.

The result is an underutilization of advertisers’ most strategic asset: their direct consumer knowledge, which should now serve as the foundation of any relevant targeting strategy.

- Different and Inconsistent Metrics Between Platforms Cultural Circumstances

Linear and digital environments still operate under different measurement logics. While one relies on ratings and GRPs, the other prioritizes impressions, CPMs, and viewability.

The result is a fragmented view of campaign performance, making it difficult to clearly understand key aspects such as actual frequency, incremental reach, or cross-screen attribution.

- How can we move toward a Total TV model?

Overcoming these divisions is not just a technological challenge — it also requires cultural and organizational change.

Several key steps have been identified across various industry studies

- Involve All Teams from the Briefing Stage

Designing campaigns from the start in collaboration with all stakeholders—creative, data, media, and tech—enhances consistency, personalization, and meaningful measurement.

- Prioritize Technological and Operational interoperability

When selecting tech solutions, it’s essential to ensure compatibility with other key platforms in the chain—from data management systems (CDPs or DMPs) to buying platforms (DSPs), ad servers, and more—enabling smoother and more agile campaign orchestration.

An interoperable ecosystem also allows something crucial for many advertisers: securely and efficiently activating first-party data across different TV environments, while respecting user privacy and regulatory requirements.

- Measure with a holistic perspective

Total TV requires moving beyond traditional metrics like GRPs or impressions in order to assess true impact and cross-screen reach. Although there is still no clear consensus or unified standard across the industry, it’s essential to explore and adopt KPIs that capture incrementality, cross-screen frequency, attention, and business outcomes—paving the way toward more comprehensive and actionable measurement.

This journey demands innovation and collaboration among advertisers, agencies, broadcasters, and technology providers to help define best practices in measurement.

A needed transformation

Total TV is not just a buzzword—it’s a strategic direction that redefines how advertising is planned, activated, and measured in an increasingly complex audiovisual ecosystem.

As audiences fragment and screens multiply, mastering a single channel or technology is no longer enough. The real challenge—and opportunity—lies in orchestrating all environments in a coherent, coordinated, and people-centered way.

Breaking down silos, adopting more integrated operating models, and prioritizing interoperability are not minor adjustments; they are essential steps toward building more efficient, measurable, and relevant advertising. Advertising that not only optimizes costs and processes but also enhances the user experience, improves campaign effectiveness, and delivers greater value to all players in the ecosystem.

Moving toward Total TV requires cultural, organizational, and technological evolution. But it also represents a major opportunity to rebuild the advertising model on a stronger, more connected, and future-ready foundation. A future where the real differentiator will be the ability to understand and activate real audiences—with precision and agility.