Lenovo “DO” Campaign Employs Wraps to Brand Sales Floor
09 Feb
By dev1
Raleigh, NC – Lenovo Corporation, a long-time client of Cranky Creative Group, once again contracts with us to wrap every surface imaginable on their sales floor. They used Elevator Wraps, Refrigerator Wraps, Tabletop Graphic Wraps, and floor decals.
About the Campaign:
The Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo, with the DO Campaign is targeting its products to the coveted 18- to 25-year-old Apple generation, which has been raised on all things iPod and iPad.
“The most difficult thing in marketing and branding is trying to change the perception,” said David Roman, the company’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, “but Lenovo had very little recognition in the consumer space.”
The campaign’s focus is action, specifically the idea that Lenovo products are “for those who do.” One 30-second television spot shows a blinking cursor on a computer screen, the flame from a gas stove being turned on and a pencil being sharpened.
“The world won’t move forward by itself,” says a narrator. The world needs “the people who do. The ones who tinker, who build, who create.”
The campaign portrays these “doers” as people who are known for doing something extraordinary. Print ads feature a new Lenovo laptop in a variety of situations, including as part of the dashboard of a car outfitted with gadgets for a storm chaser, and harnessed to the space between the handlebars on a motorcycle as it is driven through a desert.
The tagline on the ads reads, “We make the tools. You make them do.” A digital billboard installation shows a 360-degree moving image of the motorcycle laptop contraption and provides technical details highlighting the laptop’s computing power.
To help develop the creative elements of the new campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi conducted research with 18- to 25-year-olds and learned that they were ambitious and optimistic, said Claudine Cheever, the agency’s chief strategy officer. The campaign was designed to embody the ideals of pragmatism, authenticity and the act of getting things done.
But aren’t millennials more captivated by design and coolness than pragmatic electronics? Not according to Ms. Cheever, who said technology was “not just a badge, it’s a tool.”
The advertising initiative includes digital banner ads and rich media ads on the Web, television spots, digital billboards and a smattering of print ads. The ads will run on cable outlets like ESPN, Bravo and MTV, and on technology Web sites like CNet.com. Outdoor advertising has begun in nine cities, including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco.
Lenovo’s last consumer campaign, called “Ideas Anywhere,” was tied to the company’s sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics and ran from August 2008 to November 2009.
Before heading out into the real world, the company brought the message in-house and rallied employees with new business cards, T-shirts, building signs and new e-mail signatures. The internal campaign events took place in April in Lenovo’s offices in Madrid and Raleigh, N.C., and was an extension of a employee training program called “The Lenovo Way,” which began in 2009.
Leaving no stone unturned, Lenovo also rebranded the packaging for its products and the kiosks it takes to trade shows.
One thing Lenovo already had going for it in the consumer brand space was its I.B.M.ThinkPad brand.
But Lenovo had to take that brand recognition and make it “relevant to a broader consumer base,” Ms. Cheever said. “How do you take the ThinkPad equity and mine that for something a 25-year-old is going to relate to?”
The company purchased the I.B.M. PC division in 2005, and has since begun manufacturing smartphones in China. It announced a hybrid tablet notebook, the IdeaPad U1, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The ad campaign will feature new products, including the Lenovo ThinkPad X1, a slim laptop aimed to compete with the MacBook Air laptop.
The campaign also includes various media partnerships, including one with the youth-oriented nonprofit organization DoSomething.org. The co-branded campaign will begin this summer and will encourage teams of people under 25 to take on projects to improve their communities. The winning teams will be eligible to win Lenovo products.
Lenovo’s Mexico office is also forging a media partnership with MTV Mexico to create a new reality show Web series and co-branding opportunities to aim at the youth market in that region. “I don’t believe you can have a technology brand that doesn’t come from the youth market today.” Mr. Roman said.
To get a quote on branding surfaces for your campaign, request a quote here. Or call, 877-775-WRAP.