Intel Escapes to YouTube

Hong Kong–Global chip maker Intel has rolled out two campaigns.”The Escape” and “Museum of Me” leverage YouTube and Facebook, and are designed to tap key Asian markets.

“The Escape” YouTube Campaign

Intel’s latest campaign for its second-generation core processors encourages YouTube viewers to participate in a game adventure called, “The Escape.” It also taps Facebook profiles to spread its marketing message.

On YouTube, users can become protagonists who pilot drones and brawl with assailants via their keyboards to assist the film’s femme fatale in her mission.

But before users start their adventures via the Intel-branded YouTube channel, (www.youtube.com/inteltheescape), they are asked to sign in to Facebook and choose two friends whose profile images will be incorporated in certain scenes of the game.

Once the mission is completed, they can post their achievement badges on their Facebook walls and be asked to join Intel’s Facebook fan page.

In addition to YouTube and Facebook, the campaign integrated search and banner advertising as well as QR codes leading to bonus video clips.

The Escape campaign – a regional effort with media spend in India and Australia – will run for three months until September. Tribal DDB and DDB Hong Kong developed the Escape experience for Intel, working with YouTube.

Stephanie Gan, regional manager of advertising and digital programs for Intel Asia Pacific said in a statement that Intel wanted to connect with consumers in a personal, engaging, and interactive way while demonstrating the capabilities of the 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family. “While YouTube offered the perfect stage for creating this experience, it was important to make some of the interactions social with Facebook integration,” she added.

As The Escape rolled out late last week, Intel did not reveal initial results but said it will judge its success on YouTube participation as well as audience engagement via social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Intel’s regional PR manager Paul McKeon said one challenge to creating The Escape was to ensure the interactive features on YouTube were easy to use, yet offered an engaging and rewarding experience. “We found it was important to keep these elements simple enough, but not too simple,” he added.

Another challenge was to strike the right balance between video resolutions and wait times.

The Museum of Me Facebook Campaign

Early this month, Intel launched a Museum of Me application that enables Facebook members to create and explore a visual archive of their social lives.

Created by Japanese firm Projector Inc., the website went live without advertising, and attracted more than 2.5 million visitors in the first week it rolled out, according to McKeon.

Once users connect with Museum of Me on their Facebook accounts, they are taken on a video tour into various rooms that feature profile pictures of their friends, personal photos, and videos they have posted as well as a collection of status updates and content posted on their walls.

While Museum of Me enabled people to visualize their activities on Facebook, the app also to promotes Intel’s Core i5 processors at the end of each video.