Computer giant Lenovo will this week return to television for the first time since ditching its IBM branding.
The traditionally business-only PC manufacturer is launching a consumer range of laptops with the support of a mass media campaign that includes free-to-air and pay TV, print and online, breaking on 9 March. The range will be available through retail stores for the first time, through Dick Smith and Domain.
The consumer range is sub-branded IdeaPad and IdeaCentre to capitalise on the awareness of the former IBM and now Lenovo ThinkPad business notebook range.
“We wanted to retain some tie to the business product but give it more of a consumer feel, hence the ‘idea’,” David Nicol, Lenovo’s small business & consumer director, said.
It will compete with Sony, Asus and Apple models.
The ads use a yellow light bulb pneumonic device and feature the laptop’s unique face recognition login software, which Nicol believes will appeal to families and other security-conscious consumers.
Lenovo absorbed IBM in 2005 and soon after ran a business print and online campaign titled “Best engineered”.
The new retail campaign will be followed by another in August to promote the company’s sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics.
Nicol wouldn’t reveal how much the campaigns would cost but said advertising expenditure had increased substantially given the use of TV.
“2008 is going to be the year Lenovo becomes a household name in Australia,” he said.
The company is currently the third largest computer brand in Australia with 12% market share, according to IDC’s October to December 2007 data.
The face recognition campaign was originally created by O&M Mumbai, with the Australian version by Emerald City Design with Damien Toogood as director.
Lia Timson
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