IAB Agency Snapshot in Europe: Mobile is unlocking new budgets within agencies

A research released by IABs Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK reveals that around half media agency employees want to know more about complying with mobile privacy (57%) and brand safety on mobile (45%).

IAB Agency Snapshot study (conducted for the first time in France, Germany, Italy and Spain) gives a real insight into the current knowledge of mobile advertising and overall uptake within today’s current media climate. The study was made in partnership with YouGov and aimed to assess agency approaches to mobile advertising over the last year. It was made in November and December 2014, on a total sample of 154 media agency employees across the five European markets.

Those surveyed had a large range of jobs within media agencies, but 91% of them had an above average understanding of mobile advertising.

Over 60% of respondents stated that mobile is a regular part of client proposals, while 32% stated it represents an important part of their business. Nearly half (42%) claimed that mobile is unlocking new budgets, while a large majority (71%) said their mobile budget is coming from other media budgets, such as Internet, TV, Print and Radio.

Integration will be key in 2015 with 82% claiming that mobile will be integrated into their wider agencies by the end of this year. Also, 63% of respondents felt that location based advertising was the most exciting mobile opportunity.

According to the study, mobile and digital specialists are felt to be the main advocates of mobile advertising within agencies (74% and 76% respectively), while strategists are also driving the move to mobile (61%).

Mobile programmatic, brand safety and mobile privacy are all areas of concern for media agencies – all of which came out on top as areas with relatively low levels of understanding.

Nearly 80% of media agencies felt that not being able to track cross screen campaigns was a huge barrier to mobile growth whilst nearly three quarters state that clients’ lack of understanding of mobile advertising is holding back spend on mobile.

The collaboration between the local IABs and IAB Europe to produce this study across five European markets is important to gauge the level of mobile understanding across Europe and the key drivers / barriers of growth. It is encouraging to see that new budgets are being found for mobile advertising demonstrating the attraction of the medium for advertising investment

Alison Fennah,

Executive Business Advisor IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the voice of digital business and the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this highly innovative sector by shaping the regulatory environment, investing in research and education, and developing and facilitating the uptake of business standards. Together with its members – companies and national trade associations – IAB Europe represents over 5,500 organisations.