I guess it’s true there’s two sides to every story.  On the heels of advertisers coming out in praise of iAd just last week, there’s now a report that iAd is “off to a bumpy start,” indicating long delays and Apple’s “tight creative control” as contributing factors.

The Wall Street Journal ran a story over the weekend citing ad executives familiar with the process saying ad campaigns are experiencing major delays while agencies struggle to learn a new system.  Most blame Apple’s tight control over the creative process as a roadblock as well.  ”It’s a huge issue having Apple in the creative mix,” said Patrick Moorhead, director of mobile platforms at DraftFCB, an ad agency owned by Interpublic Group of Cos.

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With Apple’s July 1st launch of iAds a few days away, it’s being reported that many brands set to launch on opening day are still weeks, if not months away from being ready.  The main culprit is said to be Apple itself.

AdAge is reporting that a majority of iAd advertisers are still fine-tuning their creative, and that Apple is a huge contributor to the delays given that Apple is handling all iAd technical production itself, while telling agencies it needs six to eight weeks to build an ad after the creative is completed.  ”Most advertisers won’t be there on July 1; there just isn’t enough time,” said one agency exec with multiple iAd campaigns in the pipeline.

Still, brands are more than ready to start taking advantage of all that Apple’s promised with iAd.  AdAge notes that most marketers are spending a minimum of $1 million to launch on the iAd network, with some paying more than $10 million for levels of exclusivity within their respective industry vertical.  For example, Nissan is the sole automaker advertising on iAd, and Citi is the lone bank.  Apple is charging $10.00 per thousand impressions for each iAd banner as well as a cost-per-click fee of $2.00.  Execs across multiple brands say funding for their iAd efforts comes not only from their existing mobile budgets but also from their digital, TV and even PR budgets.

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The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today announced its launched an initiative to minimize the cost, risk and time to market for consumer agencies, brands and retailers as they implement mobile marketing strategies, effectively making it as easy as possible for those who are willing.

Through various events, webinars, outreach programs and educational materials, the new initiative is designed to further the recent trend among major agencies, brands and retailers to move their mobile budgets out of the R&D column and into their mainstream marketing programs.

Some challenges the MMA has identified that may be holding some brands back include understanding and implementing effective mobile marketing tactics, integrating mobile marketing with their overall brand strategy, developing and executing highly engaging campaigns and measuring campaign effectiveness.

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According to a new study by MediaPost’s Center For Media Research and digital research firm InsightExpress, 82% of brands, agencies and other companies plan to boost mobile ad budgets over the next 12 months.

For starters, here’s the quick facts; four in 10 plan to increase spending by up to 30% and three in 10 by 31% or more in the next year.  Fifteen percent expect no change and, surprisingly, another 3% plan to actually cut mobile ad spend.  Half of mobile ad dollars currently come from Online budgets, 35% from cross-platform buys, 27% from funds specifically earmarked for mobile and 8% from TV budgets.

What’s interesting is that ad-spend for mobile is still derived from other ad-based budgets, even though it’s projected that 43% of mobile spending in the future will come from designated mobile budgets as the industry evolves and matures.

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On the heels of Steve Jobs publishing his harsh criticism of Adobe and its Flash technology in general this morning, Greystripe CEO Michael Chang issued a response firing back at Jobs saying “open or not, Apple’s Flash ban creates huge issues for advertisers.”

The underlying message in Chang’s response is clear; nearly all ad creative is built using Flash, and Apple needs to face it.  ”Apple’s choice not to support Flash on its mobile devices creates huge roadblocks for advertisers,” Chang said in his response.  ”Today, it cannot be understated that almost 100% of agencies and their brand advertisers develop ad creatives in Flash using Adobe tools.”

He also criticizes Apple’s emphasis on HTML5, based on the fact that few development tools exist for creative purposes.  ”Currently, there are no comparable tools to create ads in HTML5, open or not, he continued.  ”This is partially an explanation as to why Apple/Quattro has opted to create the initial iAds, because no one else can, at least not in HTML5.”

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Apple’s iAd team is beginning to make the rounds to prominent agencies around the US to discuss details about its system that haven’t been made public as of yet.  Things such as pricing, how they’ll target consumers and the development of ads was left out of the initial announcement, and details are finally starting to leak out.

Ilya Vedrashko of the Hill Holliday ad-agency wrote a rather interesting blog post yesterday in reference to a visit from Apple’s iAd team recently where details of Apple’s plans for mobile advertising were discussed in detail.  Among the items discussed in the meeting were Apple’s philosophy and approach to targeting consumers, ad pricing, and the user experience.

Not surprisingly, Apple touted the fact that iAd will have unmatched targeting capabilities because of its unique position within the iPhone OS.  The system has the unique opportunity to build thorough profiles of its users and use behavioral targeting to efficiently connect advertisers and consumers.  Advertisers will have access to deep profiles compiling user data from iTunes, app purchases, usage and much more.

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When it comes to proximity marketing, there’s those that understand its benefits and risks, and those that simply feel it’s not viable given concerns related to consumer privacy, consent and other various issues.

Those opinions aside, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) just released the results of three unique proximity marketing case studies centered around Blismobile and several of its clients based around the U.K.

The first was a campaign for Krispy Kreme, which interestingly enough, was the company’s first advertising campaign in the newly entered U.K. market.  Large billboard calls-to-action were used to drive brand awareness and customer loyalty via bluetooth downloads, and was a huge success in the end. During the 15-day campaign, Krispy Kreme generated 48,154 downloads total.

The second involved a branded mobile app campaign centered around Pot Noodle, which included placing large calls-to-action on various commuter trains throughout London to “refresh a saturated strong brand.”  The campaign pushed downloads of a free branded game and created a viral effect in the process.  During the four week campaign, Pot Noodle received just over 95,000 downloads total, far exceeding most expectations, all from encouraging commuters to turn on their bluetooth to download a game.

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