Business | Technology
Lenovo connects to the Olympics
Tensions were high as the Olympic torch made its way to San Francisco this spring for the only North American stop of its troubled world tour. Deepak Advani, head of marketing at Lenovo, the Chinese personal computer maker, was not taking any chances.
- Financial Times
- Published: 23:58 August 15, 2008
San Francisco: Tensions were high as the Olympic torch made its way to San Francisco this spring for the only North American stop of its troubled world tour. Deepak Advani, head of marketing at Lenovo, the Chinese personal computer maker, was not taking any chances.
Lenovo had already decided not to buy billboard advertising ahead of the relay. In consultation with local authorities, Lenovo's marketing teams took extra precautions. They cancelled plans for marketers to distribute promotional materials to the crowds along the relay route out of concern for workers' safety.
The decision to pass up the opportunity for publicity around the torch relay was no doubt difficult for Lenovo, the only Chinese company among the top global sponsors of the games.
In any other year, the torch relay would have been viewed as marketing gold - an opportunity to attach one's brand to an event that has come to epitomise the Olympic spirit. But the politically charged atmosphere in the run-up to this year's games meant that Lenovo had little choice but to lie low.
"We make computers, we don't get involved in politics," Advani says. "We had to look at the events in San Francisco, London and Paris, and ask if they tarnished the Olympic brand, and then say, through association, have they affected sponsors' brands?"
Few companies have more riding on the success of this year's Olympics than Lenovo, whose sponsorship of the Beijing games is the centrepiece of a big and expensive three-year push to establish the company as a genuinely global brand - a transition it has struggled with since its $1.3 billion purchase of IBM's personal computer group in 2005.
Lenovo hopes to use the two-week competition as a showcase for its products. It has prepared an advertising campaign designed to emphasise the company's design and engineering as it attempts to reach beyond its core market in China to reach companies and consumers around the world.
In addition to being a top-tier sponsor, Lenovo is providing all the computers, printers, servers and other information technology equipment required to run the games. In return, it has the right to advertise using the Olympic logo.
Lenovo was a sponsor and sole provider of IT equipment to the 2006 winter games in Turin. Although the company considered the event a success, it was only a prelude to this summer's main event.
The company is airing television advertisements in key markets such as the US and China throughout the two-week contest. Its advertising blitz also features a strong internet component.
Several Olympic athletes are maintaining Lenovo-sponsored blogs during the competition. The company has also set up internet lounges in the Olympic village where athletes will be able to check e-mail and keep in touch with supporters back home. Other fans will be able to keep tabs on the games through an application on Facebook.
Lenovo is also employing an army of people on the ground to assist in local "activation" efforts similar to the one it had planned for San Francisco. Branding experts say such local engagement is key to successful sponsorship of big-ticket events such as the Olympics. "It would be impossible for someone to go to Beijing and not realise Lenovo's association with the games," Advani says.
Lenovo needs to make the most of the opportunity. This year's Olympics mark the end of three years of Olympic sponsorship for the company. Acer, a fast-growing Taiwanese rival, will take Lenovo's place as official IT sponsor of the London summer games in 2012.
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