Intel Insider Program Debuts as the Chip Giant Pulls TV Spending
By Tom Foremski - June 24, 2008
[Intel is a sponsor of Silicon Valley Watcher.]
I'm a member of a small group of advisors to Intel to provide consulting and feedback on corporate communications programs being developed by the world's largest chip maker.
Tuesday marked the first meeting of the "Intel Insider" group. I know many of the people involved in the creation of the group and also many of those chosen to take part. And I like the calculated risks that Intel is taking by involving some of the top names in the blogosphere and not imposing any restrictions on what we write about. There is some compensation provided for our time. It is mostly in the form of early access to news and also we get to keep some consumer products that contain Intel chips. There is no requirement to write anything about Intel, or the products.
It's an interesting project and I'm always interested in new ventures where we don't yet know what the answers are, where we don't yet know what are the best practices. And as Intel celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, it is a bold step for what has traditionally been a conservative company.
The Intel Insider program seeks to discover some of the best practices in corporate social/new media and in doing so, the results can be shared broadly. There is no restriction on the Intel Insiders sharing the results of the program with others.
What I like about the Intel Insider program is that it's innovative but it's not about technology -- even though Intel's business is all about innovation in technology.
Sean Maloney . . .
Tuesday we got to spend some time with Sean Maloney, Intel's number 2 executive next to CEO Paul Otellini. I've followed Mr Maloney's career for many years, he always gets the most interesting and also some of the toughest jobs at Intel. 
Mr Maloney spoke about Intel's decision to pull nearly all of its TV broadcast spend and to go almost completely online. He said it was because Intel could not be sure it was reaching the right people through TV. There will still be some spending on newspaper ads but not much.
Moving online however, is a problem. He said that the fragmentation of the online media and the differences in how that plays out in various countries has created a "fog." It is difficult to know where to spend online and then how best to measure the effectiveness of that spend.
(I will be posting a short video of Mr Maloney discussing this topic as soon as YouTube has processed the material.)
It was very interesting discussing the latest online trends with all the other Intel Insiders, including some of Intel's top communications and marketing people. I'll be sharing some of these discussions in additional posts this week and over the coming months.
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By Tom Foremski - June 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comment
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Comments (4)
Tom,
What a lively gathering today. You framed our hopes and reasons for finally trying this, something we've talked about for a while. This is a good time for many of us inside Intel (and other companies) to have people like you helping forge through the fog - us SF folks are familiar with and even welcom this! It's my hope that we learn a lot together and help many others move ahead in new directions that will make us better, more valuable companies inside out.
Posted: June 24, 2008 8:17 PM
It was great to see you today Tom - great input today as always (disclosure, I am consulting Intel on Social Media strategy)
One point of clarification that I think some people are not fully understanding from your title. Intel began to make the move to online from tv advertising a long time ago. This was not some sort of new announcement. I am not sure what the current percentage is, but before I even started working with them, I was lauding this in speeches and sales pitches to clients. They even have shifted the requirements on partners who want intel inside co-op advertising dollars to move a larger portion to online.
First time I read this was on Clickz last year http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627335
Posted: June 24, 2008 10:51 PM
Hi Tom,
I'm doing a story on the Intel Insider program for PRWeek. Bill Kircos suggested that I talk to you about it. If you'd like to comment for the piece, send me an e-mail at aarti.shah@prweek.com and we can arrange a time to discuss this afternoon.
- Aarti
Posted: June 25, 2008 11:44 AM
great stuff.
can't wait to see what intel comes up with.
what's really great is that intel is culture known for being bold.
what i like about intel is that they reward people who bring them innovation and take chances.
Posted: June 25, 2008 4:40 PM