New social marketing campaign

Intel has launched The Intel Centrino Duo Blogger Challenge and given six bloggers Intel Centrino Duo laptops to seek their views.

Like the Sprint Ambassador campaign and the many other blogger campaigns before, Intel hopes to get some grass roots juice and cred, none of which can usually be attained through traditional advertising or public relations.

There's a mystery seventh blogger who Intel describes as “… a person who many believe may just have defined the entire category of blogging itself.”

In return for the laptops, the participating bloggers agreed to contribute to a group blog over the course of five weeks sharing their honest opinions and responses to a series of questions about blogging, the blogosphere and technology.

Apart from recieving a laptop computer, none of these bloggers have been compensated in any way or asked to write anything specific about Intel. The aim of this blog is meant to stimulate discussion and bring bloggers together regardless of their “categories.”

To me this seems to be a perfect exemplar of a social media campaign – an open and honest two way conversation.