In Search of Incredible: Bridge Aspiration and a Credible Product Role

Read the campaign story

ASUS dates its In Search of Incredible brand promise to 2011. A creator portfolio documents a same-year ASUS and Intel project combining product information with stories from 16 countries. The portfolio identifies Digitas and the design team. A separately published television-film credit record names its director, production company and agency collaborators; those specific roles are not treated as a complete roster for all subsequent brand activity.

The story project and film sit within one platform here. The collection’s geographic scope is not proof of representative coverage, and the brand’s aspiration is not evidence that a device causes extraordinary achievement. The opened material supplies execution and creator context, not independent sales or audience-response results. No film, photograph, music or interface design is reproduced in this study.

Editorial interpretation: a promise as broad as discovery needs examples that people can inspect. Different stories can give the phrase substance while allowing the brand to move beyond a single feature. The risk is that admiration for a person becomes an unsupported endorsement of everything the advertiser makes. A useful bridge identifies what the product actually contributed and leaves the person’s effort, circumstances and choices intact.

Editorial interpretation: a collection can invite exploration rather than force one linear message. That flexibility creates an editorial responsibility: selection should be coherent, relationships should be labelled and product detail should remain easy to find. A visitor should not have to infer whether a story is documentary, commissioned entertainment or a demonstration. The structure succeeds educationally when curiosity leads to clearer understanding, not merely more browsing.

Give a large promise a small inspectable example

Choose one concrete moment that illustrates the intended idea and explain why it belongs in the collection. Avoid relying entirely on elevated language or dramatic visuals. A small organisation can begin with a modest process that readers understand, then add a more unusual example if it contributes a genuinely different perspective. The example should make the promise easier to evaluate rather than make it so expansive that almost any appealing story appears to support it.

Make the relationship between story and product explicit

Identify whether the product was used, sponsored the work, enabled distribution or simply appears alongside the story. These relationships are not interchangeable. Use clear labels and obtain appropriate permissions from contributors. Do not suggest that a featured person endorses unmentioned products or that their achievements are typical outcomes for buyers. If the product’s role is minor, say so rather than adding a stronger connection that the evidence cannot support.

Design exploration around questions rather than volume

Organise the collection so that visitors can choose a useful question, understand each entry and return to the practical offer. Keep an accessible static route available when the original design uses rich motion or complex interaction. A smaller, well-explained collection may serve the reader better than a large gallery of similar inspiration. Test navigation and comprehension separately from enjoyment, since long browsing time may indicate fascination, confusion or difficulty finding the relevant information.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: an adult repair-and-reuse club could create three original stories about safely repurposing ordinary stationery into desk organisers. Compare a gallery arranged by visual appeal with one arranged by the question each project answers. Explain the club’s limited role in each example, and distinguish completed prototypes from untested ideas. Do not use electrical repairs, dangerous tools or third-party campaign assets.

Measure successful navigation, accurate understanding of the organiser’s contribution and recognition of what each example does not prove. Separate inspiration from confidence in product quality or expectations of exceptional achievement.

Stop if the collection implies a contributor’s wider endorsement, disguises a fictional project as completed work or turns aspiration into an unsupported performance promise.

• Use consented original photographs or simple drawings of low-risk finished objects.
• Include the same story information and a clear text route in both versions.
• Ask participants to locate an example suited to a fictional need without buying anything.