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BEIJING—Computer brand Lenovo has been hitting its
target of making the global stage by becoming one of the
biggest sponsors of the biggest show on earth—the
Olympics.
Basically young in the market—it acquired IBM’s PC
Division in May 2005—Lenovo started going global in the
2006 Torino (Turin, Italy) Winter Olympics and extended
its sponsorship of the biggest gathering of nations in
the 2008 Summer Games here. Lenovo also is one of the
sponsors of Formula One’s Williams team.
“Our
goal in the Olympics is to bring international attention
to our brand,” Geraldine Kan, Communications Director of
Lenovo Asia Pacific. “And after these Beijing Games, we
will continue with our regional and country
sponsorships.”
Lenovo’s
sponsorship of the Beijing Games is vast, according to
Kan. From the design of the Beijing Olympics Torch,
which she described as a product of the combined
ingenuity and technology of Lenovo’s industrial design
team, Lenovo has invested more than 30,000 pieces of
equipment in these Games alone.
Kan
lists Lenovo’s contribution to the Games—12,000
desktops, 10,000 17-inch flat-panel displays, 2,000
15-inch touch-screen displays, 2,000 desktop printers,
800 notebook computers, 700 servers and 5,000 showcase
models for the “I.lounge” and sponsor partner programs.
“I.lounge” pertains to Lenovo’s free internet lounges
set up at the International Zone, Residential Zone,
Hongkong and Qingdao Olympic Villages, the Main Press
Center and the Beijing International Media Center.
“Confidential,” was Kan’s reply when asked to quantify
Lenovo’s Olympics sponsorship.
“We are
very happy with the sponsorship and the attention [on
Lenovo] and we are very satisfied with the results,”
said Kan. “Lenovo is very well known in China but not
elsewhere, until the Olympics.”
In the
Torch Relay alone, Kan explained, the Lenovo brand
reached eight countries and a global audience. “Lenovo
is slowly completely attaining its major goal of
producing the most exceptionally-engineered PCs in the
market and unparalleled costumer service.”
Lenovo
reported a day before the Games opened last Friday that
its worldwide PC shipment grew 14.6 percent in the
fiscal quarter that ended June 30, 2008, figures that
are roughly in line with the industry average growth.
Consolidated sales for the quarter from continuing
operations (excluding the mobile handset business—Lenovo
completed the sale of its mobile handset business in
March 2008 in order to better focus on its core PC
business) rose 10 percent year over year to US$4.2
billion. The group’s gross profit margin for the first
quarter reached 14.1 percent. Lenovo reported pretax
income of US$137 million from continuing operations.
Profit attributable to shareholders for the quarter grew
65 percent to US$110 million.
Lenovo’s
principal operations are located in the Beijing (China),
Raleigh, North Carolina (US), Singapore and Paris.
“We are
very proud to be sponsors of the Beijing Olympics. We
are glad to be the technology backbone of the Games,”
said Kan.
She
added: “If we can do it in the Olympics, just think what
we can do to the customers.” |
