Opinion: Perspective - Digital deserves its place in awards for creativity.

Has creativity fallen off the chief executive's agenda? In the past few weeks, I've had several meetings at above-the-line agencies where the chief executives have enthused about their new agency model, the content creation division they're launching, the design duo they've now got sitting down the corridor, the direct marketing company they're doing a JV with, the digital consultancy they've just bought. Not often enough does the agency's creative work feature in these proud tableaux.

Which is a bit odd, because when you talk to the creatives in these agencies, they display all the passion for the (above-the-line) creative product that you'd expect - often to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.

This disconnect between an agency management's vision for the future and the creative department's preoccupations (yep, TV) is extremely pointed in some agencies and represents one of the greatest challenges for many agency chiefs. It's also something of a creative time-bomb.

All of which makes the launch of the Campaign Digital Awards timely and significant. The idea behind the awards is to set a new benchmark in digital creative excellence and to recognise and champion a burgeoning medium that - small as it still is - is inching towards the mainstream And it is one area that neither agency chiefs nor their creative departments can afford to ignore. With adspend in digital growing by almost 50 per cent last year, above-the-line agencies are in danger of missing out on a key area of industry growth if they don't acquire, or nurture, and integrate digital creative talent.

Yes, digital is an infant medium; all the creative learning is being carried out publicly, with too many irritating, invasive, poorly executed creative ideas. And, yes, a quarter of advertisers continue to invest no money at all in online. But who can dismiss the power of the medium and its commercial potential?

As a measurable, effective medium, Digital is a ...