Intel Throws Ad Dollars Behind Business Push

Intel is looking to safeguard its position in the enterprise computing business with a new ad campaign, designed to highlight the chips’ bottom-line impact to the folks who really oversee IT spending — financial executives and controllers.

Coming on the heels of its debut of its Xeon chip for workstations, the Santa Clara, Calif. chipmaker’s multimillion dollar “Macroprocessing” campaign aims to cement the value proposition of Intel’s products in the minds of corporate purchasers.

“We would like the Xeon and Itanium brand names to be as well known among CEOs, CIOs, and IT managers as the Pentium brand name is among PC consumers,” said Deborah Conrad, vice president of the company’s business marketing and alliances group.

That concentration on the business customer is a relatively new focus for Intel, which has historically spent much of its advertising budget on consumer branding. But as rivals like Transmeta are gaining share in consumer markets, Intel is increasing its attention to other areas.

Additionally, the consumer PC market continues to be battered by slow demand for personal computers and competitive pricing wars — making the enterprise market still more attractive.

Designed by New York-based agency of record Messner Vetere Berger McNamme Schmetterer/Euro RSGG, “Macroprocessing” attempts to convince business purchasers that more power is more efficient.

Accordingly, the ads aim to position Intel’s Xeon — which runs at speeds of up to 1.7 gigahertz and is based on a new chipset design — and Itanium as the most powerful. Campaign creatives compare a jet ski with an ocean liner, and headphones versus a wall of speakers — demonstrating the differences between business- and consumer-grade technology.

The U.S. portion of the campaign begins Wednesday with print elements; in coming weeks, billboard and online elements will come into play. Asian- and Latin American-targeted ads will break in June, while European ads will begin in September.