Intel, which has been using Sponsors of Tomorrow as its marketing theme since 2009, is replacing the phrase with a less ethereal entreaty: Look Inside

Intel: The inside job

New York — Intel, which has been using Sponsors of Tomorrow as its marketing theme since 2009, is replacing the phrase with a less ethereal entreaty: Look Inside. The new theme purposely echoes the Intel Inside cooperative advertising programme it has been running since 1991 with companies like Dell, which buys Intel’s chips. The idea is for each theme to reinforce the persuasive effect of the other.

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5 HOURS 26 MIN AGO

New York — Intel, which has been using Sponsors of Tomorrow as its marketing theme since 2009, is replacing the phrase with a less ethereal entreaty: Look Inside. The new theme purposely echoes the Intel Inside cooperative advertising programme it has been running since 1991 with companies like Dell, which buys Intel’s chips. The idea is for each theme to reinforce the persuasive effect of the other.

Said Ms Deborah Conrad, Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer at Intel: “Look Inside is a call to action, and Intel Inside says ‘Hey, here I am’.” The new theme also “serves all our new businesses and existing businesses”, she added, whereas Sponsors of Tomorrow was perceived, not surprisingly, as less relevant to Intel’s current products.Ms Conrad acknowledged the previous theme had “reached its limits” in engaging with consumers, although it remained popular internally at Intel.

SIMPLICITY INSIDE

In addition to changing ad themes, Intel is changing how it assigns creative tasks to agencies. After experimenting for the last two years with a “jump ball” approach — deciding case by case which of its roster agencies would create each campaign — Intel is reverting to the so-called agency of record model by designating Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco as its lead creative agency.

“Whoever had the best brief got the work,” Ms Conrad said. “When you have a lot of different agencies taking the lead on a lot of different projects, it gets unruly and the work can suffer.”

Designating Venables Bell as the lead creative agency “is part of a bigger effort to get super crisp, super simple, about who we are and what our brand means”, she added. “Simplicity is the order of the day now.”

Venables Bell is, of course, pleased with Intel’s decision.

“It’s always a little tricky competing for every project you’re trying to win,” said Mr Will McGinness, Executive Creative Director at the agency. “This allows us to focus on the brand and think more strategically.”

THEMED RESONANCE

The jettisoning of Sponsors of Tomorrow for Look Inside is indicative of the elaborate efforts marketers make to ensure that their ad themes resonate with target audiences. A theme deemed memorable and effective can last for decades as lines like Just Do It (Nike) and Good to the Last Drop (Maxwell House) attest.

Then, there are lines like Sponsors of Tomorrow.

“It sounds like a parody,” said Mr Allen Adamson, Managing Director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a brand and corporate identity consultancy that is part of the Young & Rubicam Brands division of WPP.

“It probably sounded great in the conference room when it was first proposed”, he said. “But it’s a big promise, almost too big for most brands.”

That said, Mr Adamson acknowledged that developing a great brand theme was difficult. “Too aspirational and it’s not believable,” he said. “If it’s too bold, it tends to be forgettable and not ‘sticky’.”

He added: “One of the biggest challenges is getting something that connects back to your brand.”

That explains the popularity of a strategy known as nameonics in a hat-tip to mnemonics. Such themes incorporate the brand’s name to jog consumer memories as in Zestfully clean (Zest soap), It’s time for a Maacover (Maaco) and Have you found your Balance? (Balance Bar).

Although many on Madison Avenue mock nameonics as corny, it has its fans. “Tag lines are not supposed to be cute,” said Mr Gary Stibel, Chief Executive at the New England Consulting Group.

“They’re supposed to sell by making it easier for a buyer to remember what it is they’re supposed to buy.”