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Earlier this quarter eMarketer published a report estimating that one out of every three ad dollars spent in Canada in 2015 will go towards digital, with mobile in particular, set to grow exponentially in the next few years.

The confluence of this mobile-fueled digital growth and the recent rise of automated TV buying have minted 2015’s newest buzzword: “cross-screen” advertising. And while cross-screen seems simple enough to conceptualize – efficiently advertise to viewers as they consume content across different devices – it actually means different things to many different people.

There are two prevailing definitions of “cross-screen.” The first exists entirely within the digital realm – tablets, smartphones, desktops, and more recently, internet-connected TV (OTT & VOD). Marketers see the shift in consumers’ eyeballs as people consume more content on tablets and smartphones and other mobile devices, but they’re challenged with efficiency and problems with measuring impact from their digital media dollars.

As a result, software platforms have developed the capabilities to be able to buy all types of mobile inventory and all types of desktop inventory from the same place, use the same targeting and then get consistent reporting. Mobile environments – which don’t support cookies – provide unique targeting challenges for marketers. Different platforms have different unique IDs, some of which can be used to target, but it’s going to be an ongoing challenge for both the ad technology space and the brands and agencies that work with different software platforms to measure reach and efficiency across desktop and mobile.

Fortunately, Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) officially launched in Canada in April, which lets advertisers verify their audience reach across desktop and mobile devices. This is the first total cross-device audience measurement solution available in Canada, and it is a huge step in helping marketers understand how audiences are consuming video as they move across devices.

The second definition of cross-screen refers to the overlap between digital and traditional TV. This is where the biggest potential for gains in efficiency exists, and it’s also where successful measurement becomes crucial. Nielsen, along with several other companies, are trying to do this “total video” measurement and draw connections between people and households that have seen both a digital video ad and a TV ad.

However, since it’s now possible to purchase both TV and digital ads from within a single software platform, advertisers can target more effectively, measure reach more holistically and gain a better grasp of how their media dollars are working.

This is the first iteration of a brand manager’s utopia: a single software platform that can access all of the media inventory in the world, measure it in a comparable way, and automatically shift dollars to those media types that are delivering on the brand objectives. And as automation extends beyond the world of digital – and even beyond TV – into media such as print, radio and out-of-home, the ability to direct dollars to the places where brand goals are successfully achieved becomes even more important.

Ten years from now, there won’t be “cross-screen” or “cross-channel” – it will just be “advertising.” Until then, hopefully this sheds a little light on exactly what’s possible and what we have to do as an industry to help get there.

Join TubeMogul, the ACA and other leading advertising industry leaders at the Toronto Leadership Series this Wednesday June 24th.