By Xu Han
On August 6th, two days before the opening of Beijing Olympics, Yang Yuanqing lifted the No. 111 Olympics Torch high in the area in front of Tiananmen Square. We can read 3 1sts of Lenovo's cooperation with Olympics from the three figures "1": the 1st Chinese enterprise to become the 6th generation worldwide partner of International Olympic Committee; the first Chinese enterprise to sponsor Olympic torch relay; and the first Chinese team to design Olympic torch. Yang Yuanqing was very proud for such a coincidence. Participation in, spread of, and dedication to Olympics, are what the 3 1sts are telling.
The first Chinese TOP sponsor
Seven years ago Liu Chuanzhi, president of Lenovo, delivered the biggest corporation sponsorship amounting to RMB12 million to support Beijing's bid for 2008 Olympics. On March 26th 2004, Lenovo signed an agreement with International Olympic Committee in Beijing and formally became the 6th generation worldwide partner of the Committee as well as the first Chinese enterprises to join the TOP Program.
Yang Yuanqing said in many occasions that facts have proved that Lenovo made the right decision. Lenovo's annual turnover was merely US$3 billion in 2004 and the business was limited to China market only. Why did Lenovo make such a big choice? Yang Yuanqing talked about the reasons when he was interviewed by the reporter on August 12th: the first is Chinese enterprises' passion and responsibility for the Olympics' first coming to China; the second is Lenovo's desire to achieve internationalization by utilizing Olympic platform. As a matter of fact, Lenovo had established international operation strategy at that time, and has taken Olympic sponsorship as an important step of marching towards the world. In December 2004, Lenovo declared to merge with IBM's PC business. From then on, Lenovo began to show its strength in international market by fully utilizing Olympic platform.
What does Lenovo bring to the Olympics?
What does Lenovo really bring to the Olympics? Li Lan, Vice President of Lenovo responsible for international Olympics marketing, told the reporter that, as the exclusive sponsor of Olympic computer technology equipment, Lenovo supplied all the IT facilities, including computer, information system, statistic system and news release platform; 580 technicians of Lenovo also formed a IT safeguard team. Li Lan said: "Lenovo is able to clear up any problem that might occur; we are confident to make it perfectly safe".
At present, nearly 30,000 computing equipment like servers, laptop computers and printers are serving the Olympic matches. For the first time in Olympic history, Lenovo set up Internet caf�� and computer repair departments in Media Village offering services free of charge. It is known that Lenovo had built a Lenovo Multi-brands Computer Service Center respectively in the Main Press Center of Beijing Olympics and Beijing International Media Center. Moreover, Lenovo also sets up an internet caf�� respectively the Main Press Center of Beijing Olympics and Beijing International Media Center, as well as five Olympics internet caf��s in the Olympic Villages of Beijing, HongKong and Qingdao, offering high quality computer application and internet access service for free for the delegations of all countries.
Besides IT equipment, Lenovo even contributed amazing Chinese elements to Beijing Olympics. Torch "Xiangyun", or "Propitious Cloud", designed by Lenovo's design team, stood out among the 388 bidding candidates worldwide and became the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch.
What does Olympic bring to Lenovo?
Chen Shaopeng, Senior Vice President of Lenovo, revealed a list of figures to the reporter: the latest investigation made by Business Weekly indicates that Lenovo is the leader of newly emerged international brands. Authoritative investigation in China market indicates that the brand value of Lenovo has doubled from RMB30.7 billion in the year of 2004 to RMB6.07 in 2007. The brand awareness in overseas market was increased by eight percent to 70 percent, which was less than 10% before Lenovo sponsorship of the Olympics. The sharp increase of Lenovo's awareness in foreign market is impossible without TOP sponsorship.
The management of Lenovo is satisfied with the result of sponsoring the Olympics. In terms of enterprise scale, Lenovo's annual turnover has grown from US$3 billion to US$17 billion, and the profit is nearly tripled. Such a financial data is a pride of Lenovo. What's more important, relying on the well-known and highly reputable Olympic brand, people's trust on Lenovo products and the company is improved. Particularly, sponsorship on the Olympics IT hardware equipment made most key customers worldwide feel more confident in Lenovo products.
As a TOP sponsor, Lenovo shoulders the important mission of spreading Olympics spirit throughout the world. It therefore conducted a series of Olympics dissemination activities and made successful marketing in large-scale activities. In June 2006, Lenovo and Beijing Olympic Committee jointly started a large-scale Olympic spreading activity "Olympic & Lenovo Thousand-County Tour". The activity lasted for two years and covered 2300 counties and impacted more than 6 million people. Wherever the tour arrived, Olympic passion was kindled and people's enthusiasm for Lenovo products was raised.
In the implementation of Olympics strategic plan, Lenovo drew great concern from both Chinese and foreign media. Successful Olympic marketing not only enriches the Lenovo brand, but also elevates the brand desirability while improve Lenovo's worldwide awareness. Through merging with the PC business of IBM and Olympic marketing, Lenovo has become an international company and world industrial leading manufacturer with annual revenue amounting to US$17 billion, over 23,000 staff all over the world, branches in over 60 countries and regions, and business coverage over 160 countries and regions.
