Close-Up: Live Issue - Do ad agencies get interactive TV?(BBC Broadcast Ltd. and ITV Sales)

BBC Broadcast and ITV Sales are on a mission to open agency eyes to the medium.

This week, Smirnoff vodka launched an interactive ad created by JWT on Sky Digital. It is the first interactive work from the drinks giant Diageo, and a clear statement by JWT that it is willing and able to produce work in media beyond its traditional TV and print heartland.

Such willingness is unusual, though, if the interactive TV industry is to be believed. The perception of ad agency creatives is that they're either oblivious to the power of interactive TV, or too set in their ways to accept that change is inevitable. There have been more than 750 interactive campaigns on Sky Digital; they're not going away.

To address this perceived apathy, BBC Broadcast, the creative services arm that the BBC sold earlier this year, has joined forces with ITV Sales' interactive department to sell the advantages of interactive ads to creative departments. The two companies believe that, in general, interactive ads fail creatively because ad agencies view interactivity as something to be bolted on to the finished work, rather than incorporated into the original idea.

Peter Birch, the head of ITV Sales' interactive division, says unless creatives start offering interactive as part of their initial ideas, they risk losing contact with brands they have worked on for years and understand better than anyone.

'We want creative agencies to come to us for advice on building fantastic interactive campaigns so we can expand the revenue stream and really get consumers interested in brands,' he says.

The response has been mixed: 'On the whole, the creatives we've met have been very receptive to our ideas, but it is going to take time until all agencies offer good creative ideas for interactive work.'