Speakers at the annual American Association of Advertising Agencies media conference last week said the industry must increasingly cater to consumers empowered by technology and evermore content choices, writes the New York Times. At the same time, the Four As released a joint study with Harris Interactive according to which some one-third of consumers say there is too much advertising interrupting programming.

The more than 1,400 media and ad execs who had gathered in Orlando attempted to figure out the most effective way to deliver messages in a time when advertising is shifting from traditional to nontraditional media. Mark Rosenthal, chairman and chief executive of Interpublic Media, offered as a guide his experience as president and chief operating officer of MTV Networks: "Religious, relentless focus on the consumer."

And to figure out what consumers want, there was a call to improve consumer research. Jean Pool, the EVP and CEO at Universal McCann, called for media sellers to release more measurement research on traditional media, particularly commercial data, so that traditional media can compete with digital. She also addressed advertising clutter, which she said is "in every conceivable nook and cranny of everyday life."