Mobile To Grab 15% Share Of Agencies 2014 Digital Budgets

Media agencies have high hopes for mobile technology, a trend that will be well reflected in their 2014 digital budgets in the form of higher investment in the medium, as reported by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK.

After conducting a survey among 300 media agency professionals with the help of researcher Work, IAB found that the mobile channel will account for an average of 15% of their budgets next year, with 39% of respondents stating that mobile investments will come from new budgets.

The annual survey, now in its sixth year, also revealed a growth in agency employees’ understanding of mobile in the past 12 months. A total of 64% of marketers expressed confidence in their mobile skills against just 36% a year earlier.

Despite marketers’ growing understanding of mobile, clients’ lack of awareness is still an issue for 65% of respondents. Compared with 2011, however, client knowledge levels have grown by 14 percentage points.

Mobile is now a common component of client proposals, according to 40% of media agency employees. Also, it is now a regular part of the business of one in five respondents.

While growth in mobile budgets across media agencies is encouraging, there is still work to do when it comes to mobile privacy and brand protection, IAB’s head of mobile, Alex Kozloff, commented.