NetShelter Rebrands As inPowered And "Industry's First Earned Advertising Platform"

This week the folks at NetShelter have become "inPowered", a group making it their mission to take "earned media" to the next level as the "industry's first earned advertising platform." This type of advertising for the web makes use of endorsements rather than simply saying, "hey there, buy this product." With advertising that's "earned", marketers are able to find the most influential expert stories surrounding their products and push that influence to great heights.

In other words, you may well be seeing a fundamental shift in the way you're marketed to on the web. Keep your eyes open to banner ads, towers, and the like using words plucked from publications and see how much more (or less, you never know) you trust these words than a straight-up standard ad spot. According to inPowered and the studies they've conducted, "76 percent of U.S. adults rely on articles, blogs, reviews and video from knowledgeable experts." In other words, they read reviews like SlashGear publishes to see if they'd like to purchase a smartphone.

NetShelter is announcing this week that they'd been working with a limited version of what is now inPowered as a product of NetShelter Technology Media. This limited run has done so well over the 11 months they've had it running that they decided to launch inPowered as a separate company to bring Earned Advertising to the masses. Now NetShelter will be a subsidiary of InPowered and "a key distribution channel" for reaching the massive number of technology enthusiasts that exist on the web.

"inPowered plays a critical role in our advertising strategy; it is the key tool for amplifying our message. We might have thousands of articles online, but inPowered tells us the top 10 stories that people are reading, and then amplifies them to the wider network. The measurement functionality enables us to devise a strategy for communicating the right message that resonates with consumers." – Peggy Ang, VP of Marketing, Samsung

Those of you who work with NetShelter right this minute should also be aware that they are going to be continuing to offer all the services they've had up until now. This is an expansion of the brand and a bit of a re-branding too, as it were. Again, keep your eyes open to this type of marketing across the web – and off the web too – watch for it!