We've all seen the charts. Smartphones and now tablets are outpacing PCs sales, and Intel is playing catch up in the mobile market. The company knows this, of course, and is moving aggressively. They've had some notable design wins, a new mobile architecture coming out, and a $10 billion investment in R&D last year. It would be foolish to count them out.
But winning the technology game is only part of the battle, and Intel has always understood this. When they launched the Intel Inside campaign in 1991, the company was relatively unknown outside the PC industry. The idea that the processor could become an object of desire must have been a head-scratcher back then. It took a decade of investments, but the bet paid off in an enormous way. Intel became a huge, profitable, and valuable company, and a household name—quite a feat for a B2B technology company.
The computing world was changing, and Intel understood that bold new strategies were required if they wanted to put themselves in the center of it. They also knew they had to take the long view. While technology adoption can happen at a breathtaking pace, perceptions still change slowly.
The world has changed again. Intel is still a household name, but the name means something very different to me than my 17 year old son. A few years back, Intel ran focus groups with millennials to understand brand perceptions. Intel was described as an old guy in a white coat: smart, but techy and nerdy. Someone who would be standing in the corner, out of place in a roomful of 20-somethings.
Winning in mobile starts with product, but also depends on changing the hearts and minds of young people who are leading the way in mobile adoption. Enter the Creators Project. You can hear the full story in my Unconventionals Radio interview with David Haroldsen,
Like the Intel Inside campaign before it, the Creators Project is way more than a marketing message or campaign. There are lots of ways to change perceptions. Recreating Paris in the 20s, which was Shane Smith's (Vice Media CEO) vision for the Project, isn't the most obvious move on the list. But this is Intel, a brand that has shown the ability to influence culture in the past. A company that thinks expansively about where technology can take us. Intel Inside was a bet that PCs would become as ubiquitous as televisions. I'd say Intel's bet with the Creators Project is that we're entering a new era of creativity, not just computing. A time where we are all makers and creators, and where young people are leading the way. If that's the vision, it makes sense that you choose an unconventional strategy and partner, and that you think big and stick with it.
Three years and millions of dollars later, the Creators Project is defining the intersection of art and technology for hundreds of artists and millions of people online and offline. The young people in focus groups no longer see Intel as the old guy in the corner. And perhaps most interesting, the Project has begun to change Intel culture, as Intel engineers collaborate with artists and musicians around user interfaces and computing. A few years in, an unconventional, long-term bet shows signs of paying off. Sounds kind of like the early days of Intel Inside.
