- Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK Intel is making its engineers available for one-on-one conversations as part of a move to embrace a "listening" marketing model.
 
As part of that change, the company is launching a new social-marketing initiative that seeks to escape the constraints of time-based campaigns and live as a long-term effort at getting closer to customers -- in this case IT professionals.
 
Next week, Intel will launch ITopia, a section on the company's Web site that lets IT professionals chat with engineers, who have also been trained to participate in industry forums, such as Slashdot and Tom's Hardware, to address customer needs and suggestions. Intel is also creating communities for IT pros to talk to each other.

To build awareness of the effort, Intel is running an ad campaign themed "IT Utopia" using banners on tech sites that connect directly with engineers. But unlike the typical campaign, Intel has no set timetable for the effort.
 
"It wouldn't make sense to do it for eight weeks," said Augustine Fou, svp of digital strategy at IPG's MRM Worldwide, which crafted the  effort with McCann Erickson and Universal McCann. "You can't achieve a trust relationship in eight weeks."
 
The effort is one of several by marketers to embrace social media as not just a marketing channel but also a source for product ideas and customer feedback. Earlier this week, Starbucks began a Web site called MyStarbucksIdea.com that solicits ideas for how the company can improve its service and products. Similarly, Dell has run IdeaStorm for gathering ideas and feedback. As a result of feedback from the site, the company made a Linux-compatible laptop.
 
Intel experimented with making engineers available for live chats in past product launches. Last May, for example, it ran live chats around the launch of the Centrino Pro.
 
"The thing the IT professionals loved and raved about was talking directly to an engineer," said Fou, adding that it helped because they could ask technical questions to engineers that a marketing or public relations person wouldn't be able to answer.
 
Intel plans to use the live chats and forums as a way to gain insights on everything from product development to marketing language, Fou said. For instance, future ad campaigns will have copy influenced by how IT professionals talk about Intel's products.