• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 26, 2012

PQ Media guru Patrick Quinn just cited an amazing stat during his presentation at MediaPost’s Mobile Summit, which explains one of the challenges for mobile ad growth, but it really points out a challenge for all of the advertising marketplace.

“In the 1970s, there were eight choices,” Quinn said in reference to the number of “media platforms” that an ad agency could buy. “Today there are more than 100, and 17 from mobile alone.”

Wow, I never really counted them up before, but that’s a lot of fragmentation for planners, buyers and marketers to consider, not just form a budgeting point of view, but from a communications planning point of view, because each of those platforms no doubt have their own issues and vagaries for comparison.

Quinn said he “just left an angry guy” at LaGuardia Airport in New York who was giving him an earful about that ad trade fragment, which while a problem for industry pros, no doubt is a bonanza for industry trackers like Quinn, who teased the audience with the question: “Which are right for you?”

Quinn called that platform fragmentation cited by PQ Media’s “global leader” panelists mobile’s “biggest challenge.”

Some of the other biggies they cited included:

“It’s often difficult to purchase mobile advertising on a broad and deep scale. That we’ve heard over and over again.”

“Incompatibility issues.”

“National reach.”

“Competition from other new media for that money.” (Kind of like the fragmentation issue, but with some “share of voice” thrown on top.)

Incompatible metrics.

Agencies “are often comparing mobile metrics with online,” he said.