Intel & Toshiba: The Beauty Inside
Intel and Toshiba aimed to emotionally connect with a broad audience, showcasing the Toshiba Ultrabook powered by Intel Inside. They sought to move beyond technical specifications, fostering brand affinity and sparking conversations about identity and inner value through an innovative digital experience.
Creative Idea
An interactive film where the audience played the lead, exploring inner beauty.
Intel and Toshiba created an interactive, episodic film where the audience played the lead character, Alex, who woke up in a different body daily. Fans submitted webcam diaries, integrating user-generated content into a love story that celebrated inner beauty and sparked discussions on identity, proving 'it's what's inside that counts' through technology.
The Laptop Diary That Won an Emmy
A Literal Metaphor for Intel Inside
The narrative of Alex - a man who wakes up in a different body every day - was designed as a direct personification of the Intel Inside brand promise. While the "shell" changed daily, the internal processor remained constant. To ground this high-concept premise, the Toshiba Portégé Ultrabook served as the production's primary visual anchor. Because the lead character’s physical appearance was never the same, the laptop functioned as his only consistent identity marker, used to record the video diaries that allowed the audience to track his journey.
Real-Time Casting and Global Scale
Director Drake Doremus shot the core film in Los Angeles over just five days, but the production remained "living" for six weeks. The team at Pereira & O’Dell and B-Reel had to edit fan-submitted auditions into episodes in real-time. Over 4,000 fans auditioned via Facebook, with 26 being cast as Alex and another 50 appearing on the character’s social timeline. This interactive experiment reached over 15 countries, featuring notable "Alexes" such as Matthew Gray Gubler and Caitriona Balfe, while Topher Grace provided the internal monologue.
Moving the Needle on Sales
The campaign's impact extended far beyond a 97% approval rating on YouTube. It drove a staggering 360% sales lift for the Toshiba Portégé Ultrabook and boosted brand perception by 66% for Intel. The story was so resonant that it transcended advertising entirely, spawning a South Korean feature film in 2015 and a subsequent K-Drama series. As Cannes Jury President Scott Donaton noted, the work succeeded because it was born out of a powerful brand truth - that it is truly what is inside that counts.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Intel and Toshiba leveraged their technology to enable a seamless, interactive, and high-quality digital storytelling experience for a global audience.
Category
Technology brands often focused on hardware specifications; this campaign shifted to emotional connection and human experience, breaking typical product-centric narratives.
Customer
The audience sought authentic connection, a platform for self-expression, and a deeper exploration of identity beyond superficial appearances in a digital age.
Culture
The rising trend of user-generated content, online participatory culture, and a societal shift towards discussing identity and inner worth made this resonate.
Company
Intel and Toshiba leveraged their technology to enable a seamless, interactive, and high-quality digital storytelling experience for a global audience.
Category
Technology brands often focused on hardware specifications; this campaign shifted to emotional connection and human experience, breaking typical product-centric narratives.
Strategy:
Leverage user participation to explore universal human themes of identity and connection.
Customer
The audience sought authentic connection, a platform for self-expression, and a deeper exploration of identity beyond superficial appearances in a digital age.
Culture
The rising trend of user-generated content, online participatory culture, and a societal shift towards discussing identity and inner worth made this resonate.
Strategy:
Leverage user participation to explore universal human themes of identity and connection.
Results
This love story, created by two technology companies (Intel and Toshiba), achieved significant reach and engagement. The campaign garnered 70 million views and generated 26 million interactions. It successfully encouraged strangers to discuss their own sense of identity, validating the film's central theme that inner beauty is what truly matters.
70M
views
26M
interactions
hundreds
of audience members playing Alex
Strategy Technique
Turn Users Into the Story
The campaign directly involved the audience by allowing them to portray Alex through webcam diaries. This made the story deeply personal and relatable, fostering strong emotional connection and participation.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Story-Driven Campaign
The campaign built a compelling narrative around Alex's unique predicament and love story. This allowed for deep emotional engagement, making the audience invested in the character's journey and the core message.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional due to its innovative digital craftsmanship, which seamlessly integrated audience participation into a compelling narrative, making the audience the lead character. This interactive approach elevated the storytelling and brand message.
The groundbreaking use of technology to allow thousands of audience members to embody the lead character through user-generated webcam diaries was central to the campaign's innovative and interactive nature.
The narrative about a man waking up in a different body each day, falling in love, and overcoming the challenge of identity, was a uniquely powerful and emotionally resonant concept that directly supported the campaign's core message.
The professional segments of the film were beautifully shot, using thoughtful composition, lighting, and camera work to evoke mood and convey the emotional depth of Alex and Leah's story.
The seamless blend of professional film segments with diverse, real-world webcam footage required cohesive art direction to maintain visual integrity while celebrating the variety of 'Alex' appearances.
The campaign's magic truly came from the seamless integration of a compelling, human-centric narrative with innovative digital craftsmanship, allowing the audience to not just consume but actively participate in and embody the story's profound message about inner beauty.
