• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 15, 2010

Mobile ad network Greystripe has built its business on rich media ad formats that run in games and other applications. Now the company is extending its interactive units to the mobile Web as more developers create Web apps and sites instead of only native apps for smartphones like the iPhone and Android devices.

Greystripe is betting that as the quality of mobile sites improves and more and more people adopt smartphones, the distinction with mobile apps will increasingly blur and pave the way to broaden the market for its ad solutions beyond apps.

To that end, Greystripe will bring its animated banner and expandable ads to the mobile Web as well as its technology for converting Flash-based ads into the Apple-friendly HTML5 format. "We can now bring enhanced economics to the mobile web through premium ads paired with premium content," said Greystripe CEO Michael Chang, in a statement.

To date, the company has tested the new Web version of its ad units in more than 15 campaigns over the last month with advertisers including Dove and Sprint and publishers including Dictionary.com, CollegeHumor.com and Evite.

In one campaign, Greystripe said Buick LaCrosse saw a 21% lift in brand awareness and a 35% increase in purchase intent using its app-like Immersion Ad, formerly known as its iFlash Custom unit. While Greystripe's network will now deliver mobile Web ads across the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry devices, it will only support static ads on BlackBerry phones at launch. Greystripe eventually plans to expand rich media ads to mobile browsers on all major smartphones including BlackBerry.

Pushing into the mobile Web means Greystripe will compete more directly with mobile ad networks such as Google's AdMob and Millennial Media, which serve ads both on mobile browsers and in apps. But Greystripe also has the backing of two major media players in NBC Universal, whose venture units have helped put more than $18 million into the company.