The Snitch

Intel's latest marketing campaign

I attended a forum catered to the logistics and supply chain industry where a panel of industry practitioners lamented about the challenges they face in recruiting young and women talent. The problem, the panelists complained, was that the industry has always been considered to be “unsexy”.

But does it have to be that way?

Enter Intel.

Wanting to brand itself more than just a processor company, Intel just recently launched a new marketing campaign called “Sponsors of Tomorrow”. Soon to roll out across 30 countries, the campaign compares the company’s engineers with the likes of Mick Jagger, Bono and other legendary rock stars.

According to an article by FastCompany, the advertising agency that created this campaign was inspired by Intel’s forward-looking culture:

When Intel decided to retool its largest advertising push in years, the chipmaker wanted to make a familiar statement: “our products make everyday life possible.” But Santa Clara-based advertising firm Venables Bell & Partners found this slogan a bit trite.

Venables Bell discovered that virtually every technology company presents itself as necessary for the here-and-now. The new Intel campaign, launching Monday in the U.S., instead hinges on the notion that Intel makes the future possible. Taglined “Sponsors of Tomorrow,” Venables Bell’s multi-platform strategy casts Intel as a technology-focused innovator that celebrates technophile culture and highlights the company’s engineering achievements rather than the products derived from them.

Venables Bell found an interesting culture at Intel; rather than working on solutions to today’s problems, most R&D was focused on projects two or three years away from hitting the market. This forward-thinking atmosphere, coupled with a reverence among engineers for the breakthroughs that came before them, spawned the “Sponsors of Tomorrow” theme.

In one television ad, a middle-aged man donning his company ID enters the break room to raucous fanfare and swooning reminiscent of a red carpet moment with the Beatles circa 1964. As the man winks to his admirers and signs autographs, the screen graphic reads “Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of U.S.B.” followed by “Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars.”

So here’s my question: Where do your employees fit in with your marketing and advertising collateral?

Branding your employees is nothing new when organisations such as FedEx and Singapore Airlines have been doing it for ages.

But when you consider it, the cost of a plane or a truck or other physical infrastructure costs a lot more than an employee’s entire year salary. However, your expensive Airbus 380 airplane isn’t going to give your business the advantage when placed side-by-side with your competitor’s Airbus 380. On the other hand,  your well-trained customer service employee who goes the extra mile for the customer? Yeap, she’s the person who will help your company gain the sales from.

So maybe HR needs to start thinking about working with the marketing department to come up with campaigns that brand employees instead. Not only do employees (like these Intel engineers) gain from the job branding, but you differentiate your company and product as well. From these messages, we now know that Intel isn’t just a chip manufacturer, they’re the company that has the people who are providing the solutions for tomorrow’s technology.

So for the logistics people that are complaining about the less than glamorous factor of the industry, maybe they might want to learn a little from Intel’s new direction.

And you know what’s my favourite part about the new Intel ads? The last two seconds where employees are the ones signing the Intel jingle.