‘We are all desperate for mobile RTB to be the big winner this year. Mobile spend is on the up, but it is still vastly out of sync with usage and there is a reason for that. The user sees the mobile as a device that makes their life easier, it adds value and is useful. The advertisers see mobile advertising as complex, black box and adding little value. Until we can close that gap we will continue to see mobile drag its feet. Most people like to quote tracking and reporting as the issues, I am not sure it is. Those barriers are being overcome and since the idea of fingerprinting seems to have become acceptable now in all its different forms there is a lot of scope for progress.

As the big players such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter start playing seriously in mobile RTB, using persistent identity to join up screens we will see a lot of growth easily delivered. The problem in mobile is that there are so many companies who in the main all do the same up to the last 10 per cent where they each have a USP. That means we have far too many companies knocking on the door, telling tales about each other and leaving advertisers cold. If we can improve on all these areas then we will see growth and 2014 will no doubt be a good year for many and a definitive improvement on previous years.’