MANAGEMENT DECISION CASE
Intel Uses Storytelling to “Let the Inside Out”
Many users of personal computers are very familiar with the little stickers that appear on the keyboard, reminding you that your device has “Intel Inside.” For years, tech giant Intel’s marketing was centered on telling us that its technology was the secret sauce inside the gadgets we’ve come to depend upon. And that marketing has worked: its five-note chime tune Is probably clearly Imprinted upon your memory (can you hear it?). While Intel’s chips are best known for their role in personal computing, today the company has moved far beyond the microprocessor and PC into other areas. The brand, however, was still stuck in this limited role in the minds of consumers.
Intel’s marketing team decided that it was time to change the image of the brand. The goal was to “Let the inside out” and highlight the exciting work that their chips allow people to do. To accomplish that goal, Intel executed a major advertising campaign that used the power of storytelling to make the invisible nature of the Intel technology visible. And to create those stories, Intel used a new and different approach that might seem strange for a company trying to move away from the concept of “inside.”
To Introduce Its new persona, Intel produced an ad called “Intel Amazing,” showing the things In American life that the processors from Intel make possible. This included movie maker DreamWorks Animation, NASA missions, and prosthetic hands. Other stories show how Intel technology helps young innovators in different parts of the world. Jessica Orji of Lagos, Nigeria, participated in Intel’s #SheWillConnect program, learning how to grow her hairdressing business. The Intel XDK coding language was featured in the story of Caroline Wambui, a 16-year-old from Nairobi, Kenya. She and fellow classmates used the programming language to create an organ donor app. Another video shows a woman in India who used the Intel Edison to help her epileptic son. The Edison is a minicomputer the size of a postage stamp, and was used in the creation of a glove that can detect oncoming epileptic episodes.
The advertising team recognized that Intel was not getting credit for its role in major cultural events that
were centered around technology: the space shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope一even Stephen Hawkings’s
computer This new approach was important for reaching the next generation of Intel customers. As Intel’s Vice president and global creative directonr Teresa Herd, put it: “Kids today don’t care about what’s inside一they care about what they get to do with it.“
Popular culture became part of the strategy in a real-time display of Intel technology at the Grammy Awards show. Using its video-projection technology Intel merged performer Lady Gaga’s face with that of the late David Bowie in a special tribute performance. The Intel magic helped create “digital skin ”that changed Gaga’s
*makeup” and created a digital spider that appeared to dart across her face!67 This was not only a live event promotion (viewed by 25 million), but later was incorporated into an ad for television. The campaign accompanying the event worked, generating more than 120 news stories, It also drove a 122 percent “brand lift” among millennials, evaluating their view of Intel as an innovative brand.
Ironically one of the keys to “getting the inside out”was moving responsibility for much of the creation of the advertising inside Intel. Like many major corporations, Intel depended heavily on outside advertising agencies to create its campaigns. For this change in direction, the CMO felt it was important to have Intel’s own employees driving the creative process. This provided Intel with efficiencies and cost savings, but it also
provided something more. The 90-person team has a major advantage over an outside agency: they have Visibility and access to current projects and those planned for the future, Intel still uses outside agencies, and the internal team works collaboratively with those groups. But with special access to the creative minds at Intel, Herd says that this inside team can go to the business side of Intel and ask， “All right, what do you have
nowa“
Intel’s advertising and its approach to managing its creation has paid off, changing the brand’s image from a microchip manufacturer to a technology innovator used by icons such as Lady Gaga and football’s Tom Brady. Between advertising, related event marketing, and other initiatives, Intel generated nearly 60 billion media impressions in a single year. Brand consultant Millward Brown moved the company up from the 86th
Position to 5lst in its Brand Z list一a good indication that the brand is growing in value and that the marketing
efforts to reposition the brand are working. And the next time you see an Intel sticker on a computer or other gadget, you may notice a visible result of this changing personality for the brand: Instead of “Intel Inside” the new labels carry the tag line “Experience what’s inside.”
Questions for Consideration
1. What was the issue with Intel’s old branding? Was this just change for change’s sake? Why might it be important for Intel’s future business success to promote a new brand image?
2. Intel uses both its new internal creative team and outside advertising agencies. What are the pros and cons of using an internally staffed creative advertising team? What activities that an ad agency performs might be more efficiently handled by an outside group?
3. Intel shows its storytelling ads on both TV and via the Internet. Is TV still a viable media choice for tech companies like Intel, or should it migrate all these ads to the Internet? If it uses both types of media, how can it use a coordinated communications approach to optimize its advertising spend?