Micron
Our Future Starts Here

The brand rejuvenation of a technology giant.

Full Story | Overview

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Micron is one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies and the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory. And yet, when compared to other technology giants, the Micron brand was significantly undervalued.

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After being invited to attend a series of corporate marketing briefings at Micron's HQ in Boise, Idaho, we discovered that the firms essential "character" had become lost amidst years of boring ingredient ads. 

We returned to San Francisco and threw out the all-things-to-all-people brief and abandoned trying to address every brand metric at once.

Instead, we focused on one of the CEO's key strategic imperatives: tackling the critical shortage of talent in the semiconductor supply chain. By simplifying the problem, we were able to get very specific about the brand attributes we wanted to shift:

"Amongst a new generation of brand savvy STEM graduates, the semiconductor industry is perceived as being a stale and soulless manufacturer of a commodity."

Deloitte Global Semiconductor Outlook

Our partners at Micron's in-house Studio in Boise were intrigued, and they invited us on a tour of the Micron Technology Campus. It was there that we discovered a visually stunning wall listing tens of thousands of patents that Micron employees have earned. On close inspection, one engineers name popped-up again and again. Gurtej Sandhu had racked up more patents than Thomas Edison [1,335 and counting], and he had three things in common with the idealistic STEM graduates we were hoping to engage.

Gurtej Sandhu's passion, conviction and tenacity were off the charts. 

Duly inspired, we hired one of the most popular figures in modern science to help sell our core unifying idea. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson worked with us on the narrative, recorded a series of short films and he kicked the campaign off with a rallying cry to Micron's 45,000 employees. 

As a result of celebrating the unstoppable determination of every ambitious STEM grad, we reconnected Micron to its core values and moved the brand beyond being seen as an engine of consumption to a catalyst of possibility. 

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• The campaign boosted staff morale during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• To-date, Micron has been placed on the Best Workplaces list in the USA, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. 

• Our exploration and discovery campaign theme led to the development of Micron Insight, the company’s first annual corporate event aimed at uniting the entire semiconductor eco-system around collaborative R&D. 

Source: Interbrand and Great Place to Work®

"Whitty is a true storyteller. He captures and translates moments that engage and inspire people."

Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO