The continual diversity of digital has meant specialist agencies have learned to evolve rapidly. This multiplicity can only mean some major forthcoming wins from the big networks, argues the founding partner of Glass.

Digital agency business is almost as widely interpreted as its spurned terms, including the 'let's get over the bump Web 2.0'. I don't envy clients running pitches in the space as they try to understand the strengths and abilities of the diverse bunch that make up my digital agency peers.

Things change quickly in digital. When I started my first agency, an interactive television creative specialist, the broadcast market was ripe for innovation and hungry for something new. Initiatives were often led by media agencies keen to add more value than simply buying commissioned space. The creative agencies for the most part didn't get it, they didn't understand why you'd take someone away from their beautifully crafted 30-inch TV. We proffered that the only reason was for 'more' -- more value, more entertainment or simply the chance to win some more stuff.

We were both right. Crack the elusive 'more', and people interacted in droves, but the problem was that audiences were getting more 'more' elsewhere. Broadband came pummelling down the hill, YouTube amassed piles of online video and the red button became the clunky precursor to real interactive video, IPTV and streaming in its varying guises.

Digital specialisms became de rigueur, dedicated search businesses sprung up right, left and centre (and did very nicely, thank you very much), pure play technologists geeked out, email marketers convinced clients they could beat the spam filters (but can they beat the delete key?), and the more numeric sorts measured literally everything. Clients everywhere built up their learnings, spending more where it was working and piloting where they had the opportunity to innovate.

The wonderful thing about digital, the reason that I still love it 15 years later, is that it is always new and exciting. The pace of change certainly isn't letting up, in fact quite the opposite. The Web 2.0 world has, without doubt, footing (albeit often missing a few crucial revenue streams), video is everywhere and as social networking develops from mass-market catch-alls into more fragmented pools of niche participation and sharing, marketers are setting off in chase of the influencer.

Questions abound: Where are people talking about my brand? Should I go mobile? You mean we should be producing content? How do I start a conversation?

Digital agencies are very good at knowing what is possible and how to make it happen. This is largely down to a talented breed of young(ish) digerati who instinctively know how to start blogosphere buzz or create an engaging destination full of great stuff consumers are going to click on and spend time with. They've been nimble, have wowed with qualified conversions and taken one success and turned it into another. It's no surprise to digital proponents that we're only a whisker away from leaving tele-spend in the dust.

Yet we haven't gone unwatched, the larger traditional creative agencies in the U.K., fresh from an integrated reinvention and armed with reels of commercials and portfolios of print, have at times seemed like digital luddites. They've proposed digital as part of their integrated communication plans only for it to come across an afterthought or to be figure-headed with support from the aforementioned specialists behind the scenes. This was never going to be forever and as the first wave of digital players have been acquired and found their place within networks, digital has had more prevalence top table -- largely in response to client demand.

It's about more than the project, definitely more than the technology, and often more than the creative idea. It's about partnership. Partnership that ensures that your client doesn't simply get sold what you are best at, rather it's agreed together what is best for each client's business. It's about strategically developing a client's business by getting the mainstays right and riding the wave of constant change and new opportunity. It's about making digital work hard the first time and even harder the next whilst ensuring that it complements, and is increasingly central, to other marketing activity (which isn't going to go away). It's about knowing what makes their business tick and delivering great communication that works across the right digital channels.

'Digital' becomes something of a misnomer in its evolution from 'nice to have' to 'the campaign glue', the central destination that exists beyond the moment of a TVC or press campaign. It's the opportunity to create dialogue and build relationships. The skills to do so exist in the digital heartland, the real opportunity for the digital specialists is to leverage their experience and deep understanding of the potential ensuring that their voice is heard top table. How? Turn the tables on the observers, take a long look at how the other guys have won and currently retain the lion's share of marketing budgets despite their traditional channels being undermined by digital (not to suggest that the traditional channels are going to go away -- they aren't!).

Stay close, stay in tune, be ready to gun opportunity. David beat Goliath by moving fast and knowing what he was good at. A lot of clients like Davids!

Ben Hart is founding partner, Glass.