Ever since Intel launched its ‘Intel Inside’ campaign in 1991, its brand identity has become inseparable not only from PCs that contained its processors but also from PCs and ICT at large. Much has changed in the last 30 years, however, and PCs and ICT themselves have become inseparable parts of today’s world. So at its Vision 2025 event in Las Vegas, Intel introduced its new brand identity that connects Intel Inside to the roles that machines running Intel CPUs, as well as their owners, play in the world around us.
“That’s the power of Intel Inside” is the centerpiece of Intel’s new brand identity. It brings back a familiar 'Intel Inside' theme from the 1990s while highlighting the role that the company, its partners, and its customers play in the modern world. By reintroducing the phrase with a new purpose, Intel emphasizes its vital role in the industry.
Brett Hannath, Intel’s chief marketing officer, explained that the message reflects the company’s belief that its products and technologies can unlock the potential of every employee, customer, consumer, community, and partner. Ultimately, the company wants to emphasize how Intel ties together personal impact and global reach using one of the industry’s most iconic brands, with a legacy that spans over 30 years: Intel Inside.
The original ‘Intel Inside’ campaign was launched in 1991 and marked a shift in tech marketing. While Apple, Microsoft, and various PC makers spoke directly to end-users, their suppliers mostly targeted system designers and remained in the shadows. So, with its Intel Inside campaign, Intel spoke directly to consumers, making the processor a key selling point of a PC. With advertising beyond business media, a widely recognized sticker, and a catchy five-note jingle, the campaign helped build Intel into a household name.
This co-branding strategy encouraged PC makers to display the Intel Inside logo on their products, which made these systems more ‘familiar’ to average users and thus gave consumers confidence. As the PC market exploded in the 1990s, the Intel Inside campaign played a major role in differentiating Intel from competitors like AMD, Cyrix, IBM, and many others, highlighting Intel’s then-dominance inside PCs, which continues today, even though some believe that AMD now has better brand recognition than Intel.
One of the most important things about Intel Inside is that it evolved with the company and its use. In the 1990s, Intel Inside promoted Pentium and Celeron CPUs as processors that largely defined user experience back then. Things changed in the early 2000s when Intel introduced its Centrino platform that bundled an Intel CPU, chipset, and wireless network adapter, which were meant to work together, improving user experience and boosting Intel’s balance sheet (while driving some smaller rivals out of business). Eventually, Intel shifted its focus toward performance tiers and user experience with its Core series (i3, i5, i7), thus transitioning Intel Inside to a more supporting role.
While the Intel Inside slogan and logo still appear widely, Intel’s wide brand ecosystem focused on user experience has largely blurred the importance of the company’s own brand. With the new slogan — That’s the power of Intel Inside — the company is again focusing on promoting its own brand while tying it to user experience and the ubiquity of ICT today.
