Ad campaign creativity has been lost in the multi-platform digital age as advertisers have rushed to cram their broadcast ads in to a range of very different screens, according to a panel of frustrated ad and measurement executives.

“Creative, that’s our biggest hole,” Xaxis’ north America MD Brian Gleeson tells Beet.TV. “We’ve spent so much money and time in creative for broadcast – we aren’t doing our part as an industry to look at adaptive creative for digital video. We’re (just) packaging up a 30-second spot. That’s something we certainly have to make strides in.”

Fellow panelists at Beet.TV’s annual executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico, agreed.

“Telling stories across platforms hasn’t really been cracked,” said Nielsen agency solutions EVP Dave Hohman. “Stories have been really mono-media-focused – you need to develop stories that work across time and across platforms – I don’t’ see that anywhere yet.”

No wonder this is the case. As Gleeson said: “It’s a TV world and we live in it.” Last month, GroupM created Modi, a new unit dedicated to taking addressable video ads to addressable TV, hyper-local TV and interactive TV. But is there sign of a kick-back?

“When digital came along, creative was somewhat forgotten and it became a very mathematical, quantitative world,” said comScore chair and co-founder Gian Fulgoni. “I think we’re at the beginning of a change in that. The device a message is delivered on demands something unique. I think we might be at the beginning of a resurgence.”