LONDON: Agency employees in the UK are feeling increasingly confident in their understanding of how best to use mobile, but this is not yet the case with their clients, a new survey has revealed.

The Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) polled more than 300 media agency employees as part of its annual study on the level of knowledge surrounding mobile advertising and uptake.

The research found that the number of people who felt they had an above average understanding of mobile had increased by 28% over the year. Fully 64% of respondents now claimed this but a similar proportion (65%) reported that client understanding remained a challenge.

Nearly 40% of media agency employees said that mobile was now a regular part of client proposals and almost 20% reported it was now a regular part of their business.

In addition, new budgets were being allocated to mobile, according to 39% of respondents. The IAB estimated that an average 15% of total digital spend was being diverted to mobile, The Drum reported.

"It's really great to see how far mobile has come and with nearly 40% of UK media agency employees now claiming to have a new budget specifically for mobile, the medium can only go from strength to strength," said Alex Kozloff, IAB's Head of Mobile.

But she added that "it's evident there is still work to do around mobile privacy and brand safety".

The study showed that nearly half (48%) of respondents said they had "no experience" of mobile privacy while 39% said the same of responsive web design.

Looking ahead to 2014, agency employees thought that the most exciting developments in mobile advertising would come in the areas of targeting, NFC and native advertising.

Data sourced from IAB, The Drum; additional content by Warc staff