Our APAC team is on a roll.  Earlier this month they came out with The Museum Of Me – a personal ‘walkthrough’ of your activity on Facebook – in the form of a short film. Brilliant work that went viral almost immediately (1M downloads the first day, nearly 4M to date), with ZERO paid media to promote it.  That same team has not rested on it’s success, following up Museum Of Me with a sequel to our hit ‘The Chase‘ entitled ‘The Escape‘.  It’s YouTube as you’ve never seen it before – an interactive experience layered on top of a ‘Visibly Smart‘ Film. The teaser trailer is below, if you’d like to get the full experience visit our site and see if you can…Escape.

We’ve released our latest spot, featuring the Penguins from Disney’s Madagascar.  Proving once again, everything IS better with Intel Inside.

Every year FastCompany releases it’s list of the top 50 most innovative companies. Each year, we’re on it.  This year, our ranking is #19.   2010 was a heck of a year for us – releasing a new line of processors that lead to record revenues (ahem, can you say FOURTY THREE BILLION DOLLARS!!!!).  I’m expecting great things out of our company this year, and I’m especially proud of the fact that we are reinvesting a significant amount of money on our own soil.  In fact, that is what FastCompany’s recognition is for – our big bet on domestic manufacturing.  Here’s to the march towards $50 Billion.

Please join me in welcoming our new Director of Creative Innovation – Will.i.am.  Yesterday we (Intel) announced a new member of our ‘Blue Badge’ work force… a classification given to our full time, non contract contingent – the most creative member of the group The Black Eyed Peas.  Announced at our annual Sales and Marketing conference to our internal teams, and to the rest of the world through Will.i.am’s Twitter Feed, the news was met with overwhelming kudos from all outlets of the press.  My favorite quote:

“every beat I make is made with intel. And now were partners.”

Well said…and welcome to the team.

This week, at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show we (Intel) introduced the world’s best new processors, the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family.  As part of this announcement with a focus on the visually stunning features built right into the chips through processor graphics, we’ve also unveiled a component of our Visibly Smart marketing campaign called the Visual Life.  We’d like to have you show us your Visual Life.  The people you know, the places you visit, the things that inspire you…  To kick things off, we’ve produced a video of Blogger Scott Schuman, aka “The Sartorialist” as an example of someone who lives and breathes, a very Visual Life.

Today, eMarketer released a study from the Center For Market Research on the adoption of micro-blogging by the Fortune 500.  The increased adoption (60% of the Fortune 500 is now leveraging Twitter – up from 35% a year ago) shows the evolving importance of using this platform for customer service, promotion, and overall engagement with users of their brand offerings.  We, at Intel, leverage Twitter significantly to engage with our users, answer questions, and promote new marketing campaigns and product launches.  We’ve found it to be an effective tool to ensure that we are always available to the needs of current and future customers.  What’s been great to see is that the Twitterverse is 1) Interested in what we have to say 2) Takes advantage of the opportunity to engage back with us and 3) Helps amplify our messages that they find interesting by retweeting or commenting on key exchanges.  This is a trend that is only going to continue to grow, and is an important means for value exchange with our user base.

Oh, what I would give to have this ability at times.  Here’s our new ad spot, just released this week…

We’re on a roll here lately at Intel.  We’ve launched a stunning new Core Processor Family, we’ve done a great job of continuing to build our brand through media executions like the Super Bowl and March Madness, and we’ve been recognized for our leadership in innovation by Business Week, Fast Company as well as showing leadership among the most admired companies in the world.  Today, Forbes recognized us for being in the top ten most reputable companies.  It feels great to work for a company that is so widely recognized for Innovation, Reputation, and Quality.  One subnote, Forbes should probably take a look at our site to ensure that they have our official logo – that ‘dropped e’ hasn’t been around for quite some time!

Well, I guess we ARE the Sponsors of Tomorrow… last year, Business Week had us ranked as the #33 most innovative company.  After a long year in the middle of the pack, we’ve surged forward.  It’s been a great year.  We’ve released a major brand campaign, a new product line, and have gotten some great press to boost our visibility.  Oh yeah, and we knocked the socks off the Street earlier this week with our Q1 earnings announcement.  Looking forward to cracking the top 10 next year…

As an employee and shareholder, it always pleases me when we successfully navigate our analyst call and the stock actually goes up (that’s rare).  Today beat everyone’s expectations.  Here’s the snapshot:

First-Quarter Results

• Revenue $10.3 Billion
• Gross Margin 63%
• Operating Income $3.4 Billion
• Net Income $2.4 Billion
• EPS 43 Cents

That took the Street’s breath away and pushed our stock into territory we haven’t seen in a while.  Granted, that’s not saying a ton if you’ve been tracking our stock the last couple of years, but any north bound growth is a big deal during these financial times.  What I’m most pleased about is the fact that our CEO, Paul Otellini, paints an optimistic picture for our near term outlook as well:

“The investments we’re making in leading edge technology are delivering the most compelling product line-up in our history, said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. These leadership products combined with growing worldwide demand and continued outstanding execution resulted in Intel’s best first quarter ever. Looking forward, we’re optimistic about our business as Intel products are designed into a variety of new and exciting segments.”

Here’s to Sponsoring Tomorrow…