Intel drops dance ads in favour of 'talking chips'

Gemma Charles, Marketing, Wednesday, 26 September 2007, 12:00am,

Intel is moving away from its dance-themed promotional activity to focus on its chips as part of a $600m (£300m) global campaign.

The work for its Centrino Duo product, created by McCann Erickson's US office, features Intel chips talking to each other before they are put into a computer. It will be adapted with local scripts for the UK.

The ad, which introduces the strapline 'Great computing starts with Intel inside', retains the long-standing four-note sonic logo at the end of the spot.

Intel had phased out the original 'Intel inside' campaign in December 2005 in favour of 'Leap ahead', but the latest work returns to the brand positioning.

The new campaign, which has already broken in the US, will roll out mid-October in the UK, spanning TV, online and outdoor.

It follows the 'Multiply' dance theme campaign used to market the manufacturer's Core 2 Duo chip, whose dual processors allows users to run two demanding applications at once.

Intel consumer campaigns manager Simon Shipley said the switch of emphasis had been made in an attempt to shift the focus away from Intel's tech-savvy audience to embrace a broader consumer focus. 'It's about going back to basics and giving the brand personality,' he added.

This article was first published on Marketing