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It’s award season…and I am not just talking about the Oscars.  You’ll have to wait for Sunday night’s telecast to see our spot in broadcast.

Following FastCompany’s list of most innovative companies (Intel was ranked #14), Fortune Magazine released it’s list of the world’s most admired companies for 2010.  Intel comes in at #31 – up two spots from last year.  I think the first comment in our section says it best:

“Of course Intel should be admired .. one of the best companies based in Silicon Valley working with the greatest minds in the world .. life as we know it would never have been the same with out Intel’s innovations…”

Thank you Ismail – we agree…

David Veneski Intel Intel, Most Admired

Slipping a little from last year, but still making the top 20 – Intel ranks well in Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2010.  Fast Company focuses in on Single Chip Cloud Computing but that only scratches the surface of the innovation going on in this company.  Consider our design wins in Health Care, our new 2010 Core Processor Family and on an entertainment level – our Sponsors of Tomorrow advertising campaign.  All great stuff coming out of the halls of Intel.

David Veneski Intel Fast Company, Innovation, Intel

We’ve been out of the mix in terms of being an advertiser in the Super Bowl for more than a decade (12 years to be precise).  This past Sunday, we changed that in a big way – debuting two new ads (Lunch Room and Generations) during the game and again in the post-game show (which we were also the primary sponsor of).  Not only did we have an exciting game to watch, but as an Intel employee it gave me a great sense of pride to see our name on such a grand sporting stage.  The team that I work with did a great job of pulling all of this together – we’ve all been working very hard to make this happen and to see it come off without a hitch was fantastic.  If you haven’t seen our newest spot, featuring Jeffrey the Robot, I’ve embedded it below.  We also spent a great deal of time promoting through the social graph, as ComputerWorld notes in an article released Monday.

David Veneski Advertising, Intel, Sports Intel, Jeffrey, Super Bowl

At long last, Intel made the list again for Fortune’s Top 100 companies to work for.  For 2010, we come in at #98.  It’s been quite some time since Intel has made this list (we were on it from 1998 through 2004 with positions ranging from 65-28), although last year we were recognized as the #23 company to work at in terms of developing strong leaders.  A great quote from that recognition was spot on, in my assessment:

“The companies that made the cut have one thing in common: They know that investing in their employees isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity.“

David Veneski Intel Fortune Top 100, Intel

It’s Monday, Consumer Electronics Show is over, we’re all back from Vegas and best of all – we unveiled our latest line of processors that are set to turn your computers into the ’smartest’ PC on the block.  On January 7th, our CEO announced our latest family of ‘Core’ processors at his CES Keynote – the all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family featuring the trio of i3, i5, and i7.

One of my favorite quotes from Paul’s keynote was about how we are no longer ‘confined’ to our computer…

“Computing is no longer confined to your computer – it’s everywhere,” Otellini said during his CES keynote speech. “Advances in connectivity, intuitive user interfaces, immersive content and computer chip performance have allowed computing to move into new areas. Computing moving into all manner of devices and experiences all around us improves our personal productivity and enjoyment.” (credit: Intel Pressroom)

The reviews are in from several of the major review sites and, from the word go – it’s a smashing success.  From my read of Anand Lal Shimpi’s review the biggest ‘feature’ of the new Core i5 processor (’Arrandale’) is the vastly improved performance.  Anand has been reviewing our technology for a long time and, in my opinion, is one of the best at providing a comprehensive and detail rich review of each sku we release.  This round of reviews does not disappoint.

As always, Engadget has the most comprehensive blog post about Paul’s Keynote @ CES, and a quick search on Twitter reveals that the buzz about our new processor family was at it’s peak during the show and continues on even after the ubergeeks have left Sin City.  The only question left – When are YOU upgrading?

David Veneski Intel 2010 Core Family, CES, Intel

Yesterday, Morgan Stanley released a comprehensive report on the growth and future of the Mobile Internet.  The chart below is one slide pulled from the summary deck and shows the incredible opportunity ahead of companies that play a role in the Mobile Internet space.  A conservative estimate shows the total available market for devices accessing the Web from a mobile perspective is 10x the available market in the desktop space.  Truly staggering.

Two quotes from slide 22 of the summary deck caught my attention:

“Mobile Ramping Faster than Desktop Internet Did and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think – 5 Trends Converging (3G + Social Networking + Video + VoIP + Impressive Mobile Devices)”

“Regarding pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years”

The 5 trends converging quote is, I think, the most important one – especially ‘Impressive Mobile Devices’.  From my perspective we’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg of what the mobile device landscape looks like.  Development of ‘killer devices’ and the speed with which content can be delivered to those devices are currently the gating factors for explosive growth in this segment.  In 2010, that will change – and those that are positioned well to take advantage of that growth will fare very well.  Thankfully, from an infrastructure and semi-conductor perspective my company, Intel, is a leader (slide 19).

David Veneski Mobile Marketing Intel, Mobile Internet, Morgan Stanley

While the bulk of my work is not on our company web site, I have a lot of respect for the work the team does on domain.  This is a shout out for their latest effort – making your quest to find the right processor for your needs, easier.  Have a look at the tool (screen shot below).  I think you’ll find that it works well and we’ll even give you a path to start shopping!

David Veneski Intel Intel, Processor

Todd Wasserman of BrandWeek interviewed me last week about our newly released MyLifeScoop program (”With LifeScoop, Intel’s A Publisher“).  I think Todd did a pretty good job of relating the essence of what MyLifeScoop is about, however I think some of the intent of the site gets blurred when he focuses on the ‘advertising’ portion.  Yes – it is a media buy – but not in the ubiquitous display sense.

What were trying to do here is show the relevance of technology to your everyday life.  Intel clearly plays a part in that technology discussion as a result of our processors being the ‘brains’ of many of the leading PCs and smaller form-factor devices (like Netbooks) on the market today.  We worked very closely with Federated Media and our Agency of Record, OMD, to develop a program that is not simply about pushing Intel – that can be done through a display buy on an ad network or a commercial on broadcast television.  Our interest with MyLifeScoop is developing a relationship with an audience that will use a site like this to find useful ways to incorporate technology into their daily routine and share their own technology tips and tricks with others through a ‘community’ section (launching soon).

I think Mike Arauz of Undercurrent sums it up very well in his quote at the end of Todd’s piece when he says:

“If you’re on the Internet and I can’t see what you’re reading and what you’re sharing, I don’t know who you are.  The same is true for brands.”

I couldn’t agree more.  With MyLifeScoop, we’ve created an opportunity to share material that we feel is relevant to your life and your technology choices.  We hope you find it to be a relevant resource to pass along to your network and to participate in the site through social connection points.  Give Todd’s article a read and please visit MyLifeScoop to see if there’s a tip or trick to fit your technology need.

David Veneski Digital Marketing BrandWeek, Intel, mylifescoop

As a digital marketer I’m always looking for trends in the vehicles that I use in my quarterly and yearly campaigns.  Obviously the growth of Twitter in 2009 has been tremendous.  You’re seeing adoption from all walks of life and across many usage models.  What’s interesting, however, is that we have seen a trend over the last four months that shows the growth of this micro-blogging service as slowed…and effectively flat-lined in the US:

This is a curious phenomenon, as Mashable reports since the service has “entered pop culture, it’s been the web buzzword of the year, everyone from NFL players to rock stars are tweeting. We’ve seen hundreds of exciting services and ideas built around Twitter in the past two years.” (Courtesy: Mashable).

I continue to build a Twitter component into all of our Social Media programs that come out of my group at Intel.  From my perspective, it’s a valuable and easy way for individuals to contribute to a community that we are developing – such as the MyLifeScoop program I blogged about earlier this week.  While growth has slowed for the moment, there is no doubt in my mind that as Ev and Biz continue to broker agreements with industry leaders we will see audience uptake spike again.

David Veneski Twitter Intel, mylifescoop, Twitter

Today, in conjunction with Federated Media, Intel has launched a new program called ‘MyLifeScoop‘.  What is this, you ask?  I think the blog post on FM’s site announcing this says it best:

“…a practical guide for how people use technology in their everyday lives – home, school, cooking, movies, pictures, multimedia, email, storage, you name it. This is a practical, useful tool that aggregates all the best news, information, tips, tricks and how-tos. And, what’s more, it’s all updated in real-time, so it has the newest, coolest, freshest, most useful information available.”

We’re just getting started – I encourage you to check out MyLifeScoop on your own to see how you can improve your everyday life through the use of technology.  Remember – amazing things happen with Intel Inside.

David Veneski Digital Marketing, Intel Federated Media, Intel, mylifescoop, Technology