According to a new report published Tuesday from Flurry, advertisers simply aren’t coughing up enough cash for mobile ads.

Despite the well-known fact that the average American now spends even more time tethered to his or her iPhone than more traditional forms of print and electronic media, mobile ad spending hasn’t kept pace with this growth in the mobile sector.

“Comparing where usage and spending vary most,” the report reads, “one notes severe over-spending in print advertising and even more severe under-spending in mobile. Web usage also shows sizable under-investment, relative to platform usage, though not as dramatically as seen on mobile. In short, despite the fact that mobile advertising is growing, the platform is far from getting rational levels of spending compared to other media.”

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Our friends over at TextMarketer have published their latest infographic, this time focusing on how businesses are leveraging SMS.

Using original, primary research conducted by TextMarketer, along with supplemental data from ITU.int, Gartner and Juniper, the data shows which industries are leveraging SMS for business purposes — whether it be for mobile advertising & marketing, utility functions, alerts, and so on — in addition to which industries are currently sending the most SMS and how mobile advertising budgets are reflecting the use of SMS.

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Jumptap, a recognized authority in targeted mobile advertising, announced Tuesday that its targeting abilities have attracted an influx of major retail advertisers in the past six months. As a result, retail is now one of the most successful advertising verticals on the Jumptap network.

So why stop a good thing, right? In order to further enhance its retail offerings, Jumptap has appointed a Director of Retail and launched hyper-local capabilities with PlaceIQ, a new partner.

“Retail is consistently one of the hottest and fastest growing verticals in mobile advertising,” said Paul Gunning, CEO, Tribal DDB Worldwide. “Jumptap’s commitment to maximizing client campaigns through dedicated optimization experts and third-party data partnerships supports their leadership position in the industry and gives retail clients confidence and peace of mind.”

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Augme-owned Hipcricket is augmenting its red-hot mobile marketing and advertising platform.

On Thursday, Hipcricket announced new features and functionality for Ad Life.

 The powerful SaaS-based platform is further optimized for customer ease-of-use while adding a number of key updates to Mobile SiteBuilder and the mobile couponing module. These enhancements strengthen the platform’s self-service capabilities and enable tighter integration between mobile channels.

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Here’s a tidbit of mobile marketing news for your “protection.” Did you know that Valentine’s Day provokes huge ad spend in the mobile channel for condom manufacturers? On Monday, the advertising buildup ahead of tomorrow’s ultra-romantic holiday was on full display as a flurry of companies announced their last minute marketing push for their intimate products.

“This year,” says independent business and marketing analyst Mike Randazzo,”we’ve seen more ads than ever for personal products, especially birth control mechanisms like condoms and other contraceptives. Mobile is the new frontier for condom ads and I think we’re going to see more of this channel push in the years ahead.”

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, which is also recognized as National Condom Day, the makers of LifeStyles Condoms today debuted “This Changes Everything,” the U.S. advertising campaign for the new SKYN Condom line.

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It’s been announced that TapIt has debuted a new RTB-enabled mobile advertising platform aimed at agency advertisers and mobile app developers.

The new platform combined with TapIt’s SDKs allow developers to quickly and easily integrate rich media ads into their Android and iOS applications, leveraging both a self service interface and multiple ad units for a variety of monetization options.  The platform also features real-time bidding capabilities, in addition to advanced tracking and targeting options including channel, publisher, carrier, geographical location, creative type and more.

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The following is a guest post by Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer for Hipcricket.

Every year in the beginning of February, football fans tune in to watch THE game of the year. Even if you aren’t a football fan, there is something to be said about the excitement, the hype, the food and drink, and obviously, the commercials. Marketing aficionados tune in with a microscope for the next big trend, the most impressive call-to-action and to spot the brands that have their finger on the pulse of advertising strategies that compel brand loyalty, increase sales and positively impact overall buzz.

Marketers who  are paying the big bucks for such primetime real estate spots cannot afford to drop the proverbial ball when it comes to making sure that the ad pays for itself and brings in additional revenue. It is one of the only times that viewers actually look forward to watching a commercial. However, the buzz that a Super Bowl ad procures does not necessarily equal success. Even if every person in America is cooing over the adorable puppy in sneakers, it is very possible, and probable, that buzz will die off as quickly as the hangover the Monday morning after.

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