The number of companies running mobile banner ads in the UK rose 45 percent in the six months ending March 09 compared with the six months prior, according to M:Metrics. That brings the total number of advertisers to 195…it’s good growth at a time when other media are seeing falling ad spend, but M:Metrics notes that it’s still largely companies trialling the medium reports Clickz. There’s some good news in that companies outside of the mobile and automotive verticals (traditional bastions of mobile advertising) are beginning to try the medium, but some bad news is that the amount companies are spending is still small.