$300 Mil. Campaign Takes Intel Outside

Intel moves aggressively to pursue the growing mobile-laptop market with "Uniwire," a $300 million global ad campaign that launches today to support Centrino, its new mobile technology.The effort, by Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners in New York, takes a lighthearted tone to play off the blurring of lines between computer use for work and for play. The first four spots, 15-second teasers for the March 12 launch of Centrino, spotlight users of the technology working in offbeat settings. A businesswoman types on her laptop as she and her desk are forklifted away; a professional works at a desk in an indoor golf range; a worker rolls by, desk and all, on an airport people mover; and a junior exec crunches numbers beneath a diving board.In the 30-second and 60-second versions, titled "Moving Day," the ad opens on an office completely empty save for unplugged wires littering the floor. The tagline: "Introducing Intel Centrino mobile technology, the new wireless laptop technology designed to help you untangle, unburden and unwire your life.""While people are working away from the office more and more, they also take more of their personal life with them," said Greg Sieck, Intel vp of advertising and brand strategy. "There isn't any separation between having a computer for work or for fun, and this campaign recognizes that."Sales of notebook computers grew 12.4 percent to $2.1 billion in year-over-year growth in the first three quarters of 2002, according to technology research firm NPD Group. Desktops PCs, meanwhile, showed a 20.3 percent slide to $2.8 billion in the same period. "Intel is right to be going after the one segment of the market still showing legitimate growth," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm in Campbell, Calif. "Its message needs to be that every mobile device in the future needs to be connected. So they've created a chip that drives the vendors in this direction and [added marketing] to get customers to call for it the way they did with 'Intel Inside.' "Ron Berger, CEO of MVBMS, said the goal was to "take something that could be esoteric and complicated, and convey it in a way that's humorous and fun." The agency also wanted to avoid clichés about the product's potential. "The challenge was to not only show the promise," Berger said, "but also reflect the reality in everyday ways, and to convey not so much what you might be able to do tomorrow, but what you can do today."The next generation of creative strategy for laptops may look a lot like the current executions for mobile communications, said Charlie Glavin, director of research and a senior analyst covering semiconductors for the institutional investment bank ThinkEquity Partners in San Francisco. "We'll be hearing a lot of ads focusing on talk time and battery life," he said.Intel's most recent campaign, which broke Sept. 16, was an estimated $100 million branding effort that targeted young adults and women by looking at how "PC technology has changed our lives for the better."

Brand Marketing

$300 Mil. Campaign Takes Intel Outside

David Kaplan

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