Despite Apple’s lack of support for Flash on iPhones and iPads, 30m iOS users saw billions of ad impressions created using Adobe Flash from major brand advertisers during 2010m according to mobile advertising firm Greystripe.

Using Greystripe’s proprietary Lightning Technology, brands including Buick, Corona, Axe and Burger King, delivered over 300 Flash-based mobile ad campaigns in 2010. The company projects 1,200 such campaigns in 2011, equating to 100 Flash-based campaigns per month. Greystripe allows advertisers to build ads for multiple platforms without having to pay for creative services as the company’s Lightning Technology automatically transcodes Flash ads to HTML5 on-the-fly.

Despite the advancement of HTML5 tools, Greystripe says it has seen an increase in demand for its Lightning Technology. In Q4 2010, campaigns utilizing Lightning Technology increased to over 50 per cent of Greystripe’s revenue, up from 33 per cent in the first quarter of the year. Greystripe estimates it will deliver over says the 1,200 Flash-authored ad campaigns delivering using Lightning Technology in 2011 will save US advertisers $36m in ad development costs based on an estimated price of $30,000 to develop an ad in HTML5.

“Although we fully support HTML5, we have had only one advertiser choose to develop a creative in HTML5 when given the option of using Flash,” says Dane Holewinski, director of marketing at Greystripe. “A lot of brands don’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars to create an HTML5 creative when they have the option to use Greystripe’s Lightning technology to create and deliver rich media ads across mobile platforms for free.”

In 2010, Greystripe saw the average value of campaigns utilizing Lighting Technology double compared to 2009. Greystripe says it expects this figure to grow by 300 per cent in 2011, as brands move past experimental mobile buys and integrate mobile as a core component of their marketing strategy.