Creative Week -- Intel & Project Daniel
In May 2014, I had the opportunity to attend the Creative Week conference. Maybe it was because it happened to be my first experience at a conference of this sort, but the atmosphere of the event and general energy of the crowd seemed like just the place to be as when starting a career in advertising. It’s a great networking opportunity and an easy and enjoyable place to learn something new and keep up with the latest innovations in the advertising world. So — highly recommended! I got a ticket for one day, which was relatively affordable.
There were several panels on the day I attended, including RED talking about their fight against AIDS (the .hiv campaign & their collaboration with Bono), Kat Gordon, the Founder of the 3% Conference, spreading the word about the problem of gender inequality in the creative world, and many more. There was one in particular that I found the most interesting — and unforgettable.
Intel presented their new rebranding launch, including the campaign that came out of it focused on the beautiful and very on-brand tagline “Look Inside.” During the panel, we had a chance to see Not Impossible Lab’s Mick Ebeling talk about Project Daniel, a heartwarming story about Mick traveling to South Sudan and creating “the world's first 3-D prosthetic printing and training facility to help those who have lost limbs to warfare” (as Adweek put it). Let me start by saying that after they showed the campaign video, everyone in the audience started to cry.
Watch the video if you haven’t already, and make sure to check out the rest of the campaign. It includes stories about the explorer Erik Weihenmayer and the brilliant young biologist Jack Andraka — both are must-see.
What was beautiful about this campaign was just how perfect that collaboration was. Not even for a second, did it feel as though Mick Ebeling from Not Impossible Lab ‘sold his soul’ to work with a huge corporation. Quite the opposite; it felt like a big brother is helping his baby brother to make the world a better place. That’s just what any big corporation has to do these days, because, as we know, with power comes responsibility.
The entire campaign made us all think once again about the importance of what is inside each of us at core — values, sympathy, soul if you will — and about what should therefore be inside all the things we create and all the products we use and consume every day. Intel’s campaign is about how crucial it is to have a core, to be sure in the essential quality of what is inside — whether you are human or technology-based.
It’s about celebrating the good, solid people who identify a problem and a solution, “commit, and then figure out how the heck you’re gonna do it” (Mick Ebeling). It’s about the power of an IDEA and the power of technology to make that idea a REALITY.
Intel created a campaign that was built off simple tagline which contained so much more meaning than just a couple of words. They built beautiful, touching stories that helped the brand instantly reconnect with the audience.
This campaign once again inspired me to think of ways to create campaigns focused on putting something good into the world. The feeling that I got from the Intel presentation — the pride and satisfaction with their brand — that’s what contagious, and what makes people care.
In the end of the presentation, they asked the audience: How many of you would consider getting an Intel-based computer over Apple? Everyone in the audience raised their hands.
