英特尔牵手说唱巨星共谋霸业

    大公司请名人为产品代言是司空见惯的做法。第一资本金融公司（Capital One）的代言人是演艺明星亚历克斯•鲍德温，露华浓（Revlon）的“品牌大使”则是哈莉•贝瑞。通常来说，这种合作关系很简单：公司付钱给名人，名人负责推销产品。不过，去年英特尔公司（Intel）想出了一个新招数。他们雇佣了will.i.am（Hip-hop团体“黑眼豆豆”首脑人物，著名音乐制作人——译注）来担任“创新总监”。

    这家芯片业巨头为此发布了一则激动人心的声明，把这一签约描绘为“为期数年，亲力亲为的创意和技术合作。”与此同时，作为“黑眼豆豆”（Black Eyed Peas）的头面人物，will.i.am也发表了感想：“能和英特尔公司的科学家、研究人员和计算机程序员结成团队，通力合作，共同开发沟通、创意、通信和娱乐的新途径将会是一番不同寻常的体验。”

    那么，这位说唱巨星兼音乐制作人虽然亲切友好，但对英特尔来说，他对于研发下一代微处理器到底能做出什么样的贡献呢？在今年举办的拉斯维加斯消费电子展（Consumer Electronics Show）上，英特尔的首席执行官保罗•欧特里尼宣布，公司将让will.i.am展开一段环球之旅，推广充满无限创意可能的“超级本”（Ultrabook）。之所以要设计这一系列搭载英特尔品牌的笔记本，本意在于和苹果公司（Apple）的轻薄笔记本Macbook Air一较高下。在这一旅程中，英特尔会派出一支视频团队全程跟拍will.i.am，而他会用“超级本”与他的200万名Twitter粉丝进行沟通。每到一座城市，他都会在一位当地艺术家的创意协助下，谱写新作品。粉丝们则可以访问英特尔的“超级本项目”网站，下载免费的音乐，观看will.i.am一路上的视频。

    所有这些做法，听起来更像是高明的营销手段，跟芯片设计没什么关系。确实，首先想出和will.i.am开展这种合作的英特尔高管正是资深营销副总裁约翰•杰佛。这位丹麦人原来在麦当劳（McDonald's）工作，负责全球品牌推广。正是他策划了“我就喜欢”（"I'm lovin' it"）这一推广活动。不过，杰佛和英特尔的其他高管都竭力否认will.i.am只是个明星代言人。杰佛就此所作的表态是：“这个活动不是说Will就拿着‘超级本’在全世界飞来飞去，到处跟人微笑着说‘就买它吧’。其实技术是他谋生的核心手段。”

    近日，《财富》杂志（Fortune）在“唱片工场”（Record Plant）专访了will.i.am。他在这间富有传奇色彩的好莱坞录音棚里拥有一间办公室。就在这个采访的前一晚，他和斯蒂夫旺达（美国著名黑人盲音乐家——译注）刚领衔举行了一场慈善音乐会，为他的个人慈善基金筹得了500万美元。这个基金主要是向博伊尔高地（Boyle Heights）的年轻人提供教育辅导和大学助学金。而这个位于洛杉矶的贫困地区正是他成长的地方。就在他办公室隔壁的录音棚里，一支管弦乐队正在排练，为“黑眼豆豆”的一首新曲录制配乐。这位今年36岁的说唱巨星穿着宽松的休闲短裤，一边大嚼咖啡桌上一个大碗里的开心果，一边向我们坦陈他自己对与英特尔合作的理解。

    他说：“是我去找他们合作的，因为我想生产硬件设备，我要做电脑、平板电脑和电话一类的产品。但我不想仅仅是把自己的签名印在产品上。艺术家往往把自己的名字印在一些不值钱的玩意上。但英特尔是生产智能核心部件的——这就是为什么我想跟他们紧密合作的原因。”

    英特尔要推出一款will.i.am冠名的硬件产品还有待时日。不过，这位说唱巨星去年就和英特尔的技术专家们会晤过了。当时他们讨论的是，如果要呈现一场虚拟的“黑眼豆豆”音乐会，有成千上万的乐迷参与，而所有人都通过深入体验的3D设备与乐队互动，在算法上会遇到哪些挑战。

    Celebrity endorsements are commonplace, from Capital One pitchman Alec Baldwin to Revlon "brand ambassador" Halle Berry. Such arrangements are normally simple: company pays celeb to tout its products. Last year, however, Intel came up with a new wrinkle on the formula by hiring hip-hop star will.i.am as its "director of creative innovation."

    The giant chipmaker issued a breathless announcement, describing the engagement as a "multi-year, hands-on creative and technical collaboration." The Black Eyed Peas frontman, meanwhile, gushed: "Teaming up with the scientists, researchers and computer programmers at Intel (INTC) to collaborate and co-develop new ways to communicate, create, inform and entertain is going to be amazing."

    So how, exactly, is the genial rapper and producer contributing to the development of Intel's next-generation microprocessors? At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CEO Paul Otellini announced that Intel was sending will.i.am on a world tour to promote the creative possibilities of the Ultrabook, a line of Intel-branded notebooks designed to compete with Apple's (AAPL) Macbook Air. Trailed by Intel video crews, will.i.am is using Ultrabooks to communicate with his two million Twitter followers and compose new music with creative help from a local artist in each city. Fans can visit Intel's Ultrabook Project site to download free tracks and watch video of will.i.am on the road.

    All this sounds more like high-concept marketing than chip design. Tellingly, the Intel executive who first dreamed up the will.i.am partnership is senior marketing VP Johan Jervoe, a Dane who previously led global branding efforts at McDonald's (MCD), where he devised the "I'm lovin' it" campaign. But Jervoe and other Intel execs strenuously deny that will.i.am is a mere celebrity pitchman. "This is not Will flying around the world with an Ultrabook, smiling and saying 'Buy this,'" Jervoe adds. "Technology is central to what he does for a living."

    Fortune recently caught up with will.i.am at the Record Plant, a legendary recording studio in Hollywood where he keeps an office. The previous night, he and Stevie Wonder had headlined a charity concert that raised $5 million for his personal charity, which provides mentoring and college scholarships to young people in Boyle Heights, the hardscrabble Los Angeles neighborhood where he grew up. In the studio next door, an orchestra was setting up to record strings for a future Black Eyed Peas track. Wearing baggy black cargo shorts and munching pistachio nuts from a large bowl on his coffee table, the 36-year-old rapper offered his own take on the Intel relationship.

    "I sought them out because I wanted to make hardware, do computers, tablets, phones," he says. "But I didn't want to just put my signature on some product. Artists are always putting their names on shit. Intel makes the brain -- that's why I wanted to hook up with them."

    Intel has yet to release a will.i.am hardware line. But the rapper devoted time last year to meeting with Intel technologists. They've discussed the computational challenges involved with putting on a virtual Black Eyed Peas concert attended by thousands of avatars, all interacting with the band in immersive 3D.