Intel launches Ultrabook Campaign

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IntelIntel’s biggest marketing campaign in nearly a decade kicked off with television, online and print. “A New Era of Computing,” via Venables Bell & Partners San Francisco, is aimed at marketing the Ultrabook experience in exciting and innovative ways to consumers. An Ultrabook is a higher-end type of subnotebook powered by Intel. Ultrabooks are designed to feature reduced size and weight, and extended battery life without compromising performance.


Valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, the campaign is the largest marketing spend for the company since launching Intel Centrino in 2003.

“‘A New Era of Computing’ is going to be very different from what you’ve seen from Intel in a long time,” said Kevin Sellers, VP/Sales and Marketing Group and director, Advertising and Digital Marketing. “This is not a campaign where we’re talking about the microprocessor or Intel the company. Instead, we’re giving a cinematic and epic feel to how Intel-inspired Ultrabook systems are ushering in a new era of computing and making everything else seem like ancient history.”

Sellers was referring to the initial TV spots set in the American Old West, ancient China and medieval times that humorously position PCs as old-fashioned and Ultrabooks being, as the campaign theme suggests, “a new era of computing.”

 “Desperado” debuts 4/6 after a world premiere through paid promotion on Twitter — a U.S. first, according to the online social networking service — two days earlier at twitter.com/intel. A spin on the classic spaghetti western, “Desperado” takes place in a saloon where late-19th century gunslingers frustrated by the lack of performance of their clunky notebooks feel threatened by this 21st century, Ultrabook-brandishing new kid in town. The spot highlights the responsiveness and quickness of the Ultrabook.

 “House of Flying Laptops,” highlighting Ultrabooks’ extended battery life and a nod to such stylish martial arts films as “House of Flying Daggers” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” begins in an ancient Chinese temple during the Ming Dynasty. Two traditionally dressed women, each wielding a bulky, power-hungry laptop, engage in an epic battle over a single available power outlet. Their attention quickly turns to a modern woman sitting at a nearby table and working on her Ultrabook.

Set inside a medieval European castle and underscoring Ultrabooks’ small form factor and high performance, “Round Table” shows a team of less-than-enthused knights subjected to a slide presentation by their king who is using an outmoded computer that can’t keep up. Relief comes to the frustrated monarch when a woman suddenly enters the room with a “mystical device” — an Ultrabook.

Each ad ends with a metaphoric twist as the original ancient setting transforms to a modern-day one. A voiceover at the end says, “Suddenly, everything else seems old-fashioned. Ultrabook. Inspired by Intel.”

Venables Bell & Partners was also responsible for Intel’s successful and ongoing “Sponsors of Tomorrow” brand campaign that launched in 2009. OMD led global media planning of a campaign that includes TV, print, outdoor, online and other advertisement placements, as well as in-store and online retail campaigns.

While the debuts of the initial three commercials will be staggered through May in the US and abroad, a unique online experience will allow consumers to interact with the spots starting in mid-April. Visitors to intel.com/ultrabook can create their own adventures through a series of decisions while becoming educated on Ultrabook’s product features along the way.