How AT&T, Intel Decided To Ring In A New Year

Intel and AT&T, two of the world's best-known brands, unveiled new-image campaigns this month that target the next-generation digital home and infuse $800 million-plus into the marketplace. Both campaigns aim to thrust the respective brands more immediately into the user's experience, and each client arrived at that goal after some research-inspired soul searching. The120-year-old AT&T has a near-100 percent brand awareness among businesses and consumers, according to internal research. But research from SBC, with which it merged in October, showed it needed to increase its relevance to younger audiences who lack brand loyalty in their choices of communications and entertainment technology. According to that research, the AT&T that survived the wave of telecom breakups of the past five years was known as a business-to-business network provider, while SBC was known as a regional Bell operating company catering to consumers and small businesses. Omnicom Group's GSD&M in Austin, Texas, partnered with independent Rodgers Townsend to develop a unifying theme for the newly merged entity that would shed the old images: "Your World. Delivered."AT&T chose to make "the world" part of its tagline as a link to its revamped "globe" logo and to emphasize the company's global reach, executives said. But to make the tagline more relevant, they chose "your" over "the." The client also wanted to represent the strength of SBC, its reputation for reliable customer service, in the tagline, executives said."We really wanted to put our customers' needs first," said Wendy Clark, vp, advertising at AT&T. "The tagline says, not only do we have a solution, we can deliver it."Today, AT&T launches the online component of the campaign, which broke on TV Jan. 1. More than 20 Web executions have been customized to different sites and audiences, said AT&T rep Howard Riefs. On ESPN.com, for example, the message will be, "Your playoffs. Delivered," while CNET viewers might see "Your blogging. Delivered."The campaign represents the largest online marketing effort in the history of either AT&T or SBC, Riefs said, adding, "We are investing more than double the online advertising industry average." Online ad spending averages about 5 percent of an overall ad budget, according to Forrester Research, which amounts to an impressive $50 million given the campaign's overall $500 million media budget. The company decided to increase its stake in online "because of its reach and ability to customize," said Riefs. "Additionally, as a leader in Internet services, we recognize many of our customer's worlds are delivered through the Internet."Going forward, GSD&M will work on consumer advertising, while Rodgers Townsend will focus on business advertising, an AT&T rep said. The message it wants both audiences to receive is that the two companies, AT&T and SBC, could do much more together than they could do separately, sources said. The visual image GSD&M designed for the "Your world. Delivered" message was of two suns orbiting the Earth and merging as one, creating a brighter day. Interpublic Group's McCann Worldgroup landed the $300 million Intel account last year after a review. Included in the brief from CMO Eric Kim was a mandate to replace the 15-year-old "Intel inside" tagline, which emphasized the chipmaker's super-fast PC chips."'Intel inside' was more of a marketing program than a positioning. It was a very effective marketing tool at a time when the PC industry was exploding," said Michael McLaren, director of global accounts at McCann Worldgroup. But research indicated that a broader message could expand the brand. "The 'Leap ahead' idea is part of several platforms—the micro-processor, the software that helps drive it, the content it delivers and the technology standards," McLaren said. "These platforms, which Intel announced a year ago, are part of a broader story than just the microprocessors." Intel's new message to consumers is about its ability to deliver "expandability" in mobile communications where flash memory is key, said one executive. "Your PC will [eventually] be the source of all your entertainment, in terms of downloading movies, music and using the Internet," the exec said, adding that you'll be able to do all of those things on the go.The tagline debuted in print ads targeting the business community on Jan. 3 in The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. They feature a man leaping forward in an open field. The consumer-targeted ads also broke Jan. 3 in PC Magazine and USA Today, focusing on Centrino Duo, a dual-core processor for laptops. Instead of showing a man leaping, each ad features a man standing alone gazing up at different headlines such as, "The greatest leap for laptops since the color screen." Another ad touts the chip as "The most exciting news for laptops since the DVD drive" for its "expanded connectivity.""The technology has moved on to a point where it's a much more powerful experience you're getting from Intel now," said McLaren. "The positioning has been broadened to embody that. 'Leap ahead' is a statement that says technology is going to excite you and that Intel is going to continue to bring you breakthrough technology."Since September, print, outdoor and TV spots featuring celebrities such as John Cleese and Seal sitting on the laps of consumers have been emphasizing the immediacy of experience delivered by Intel's Centrino chips. New TV work will be added to rotation later this month and continues to emphasize Centrino as being key to entertainment convergence."At the end of the day, you want to believe that an Intel chip in any of these devices makes for a smooth experience," the executive said.

Brand Marketing

How AT&T, Intel Decided To Ring In A New Year

Kathleen Sampey

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Kathleen Sampey