Following the IABs announcement that mobile ad spend has grown 132 per cent in the first half of the year, and was not too far away from eclipsing the whole ad spend on mobile in 2011, we tracked down some industry experts to see exactly how they had received the news.

Amy Vale, VP of global research and strategic communications at Mojiva, thinks the figure represents the exciting growth potential of mobile advertising that is still to be realised. “Mobile is the most powerful tool in a marketers toolbox and yet, until recently, they have been scared to really maximise its full potential. This is going to change,” says Vale. “Partner this increase in spend with a global sales prediction of 58m units of the iPhone 5 in 2012, the impending rollout of 4G in the UK, and with smartphones becoming ever more creative-friendly – bigger screens, faster download speeds – and you cannot deny that mobile is going to form the core of marketing strategies to come. I’m excited to see just how innovative British brands can be in really maximising this spend and delivering some rich, highly engaging mobile campaigns.”

Jonathan Milne, GM of Europe at Celtra, draws comparison with digital. “Mobile is the growth engine of the digital advertising economy,” he says. “The IABs expenditure report quantifies the unmistakable trend that we are seeing of media budgets being shifted at scale to mobile. Consumers are mobile natives more than ever and advertisers are beginning to understand that to reach their audiences, they must be on mobile. Brands are flocking to mobile and, to put this in context, the rate of adoption of mobile advertising is outstripping the growth of online advertising at a similar stage.”

Stephen Griffiths, head of Breakthroo digital consultancy, outlined three systemic issues he finds when advising clients, which he believes are still hampering growth: that media agencies want investment scale before acquiring mobile and technology expertise and making mobile part of their DNA; that clients want to be advised on the mobile mix and return before allocating spend; and that creative agencies need to appreciate the unique qualities that mobile posesses and consider the whole mobile media mix.

“Resolve these three issues,” says Griffiths, “and the mobile market could grow more significantly – to better reflect its proportion of digital audience – and mobile can become just another core capability for agencies and clients, but one which enables clients to take a richer, more agnostic multi-channel approach to engaging customers.”

John Stoneman, GM UK and Ireland at InMobi, likewise believes that this is just the beginning: “The IAB numbers show that innovative, engaging mobile marketing has made great strides in the last twelve months, but we are still just scratching the surface of a sea change in overall marketing strategy,” he says.

“Our own research shows that mobile is on a par with digital, and marginally behind TV in its ability to impact the purchasing decisions of consumers, so its important that marketers acknowledge the positive direction that the mobile industry is taking and address their marketing strategy appropriately.”

Sultan Khan, chief executive of AdMaxim, says that one of the things he feels needs to be done is for the mobile industry to champion its strength as an advertising medium and make a virtue out of its complexity. “The combination of real-time and geo-location based services mean that mobile’s potential to transform how, where and when advertisers engage with consumers is huge – arguably much greater than other media,” says Khan.

“Mobile enables brands to personalise their content, messages and offers in real-time so that these are as relevant and timely to consumers as they possibly can be. We need to explain just how clever real-time audience optimisation learning algorithms can be and what in-depth, instantaneous analytics can deliver for brand marketers.”