Computer maker turns to Winter Olympics to build a global brand

Many computer buyers around the world know IBM and its ThinkPad line of notebooks but have never heard of Lenovo. The mainland company hopes this will have changed after its sponsorship of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Throughout the Games, Lenovo ran print, television and internet advertising campaigns that linked the ThinkPad brand with the Lenovo name more closely.

This was a part of an Olympic sponsorship that saw Lenovo provide more than 5,000 desktops, 800 notebooks and 350 servers to the Games, and more than 1,000 ThinkPads and Lenovo desktops to NBC television. Getting further mileage from the sponsorship, the Hong Kong-listed company chose Turin for the global launch of its 3000 line of computers, Lenovo's first under its name for the international market.

Chief marketing officer Deepak Advani said: 'The fact that we did the worldwide launch from Turin, Italy, was to communicate to the world that Lenovo is capable of handling one of the most complex undertakings on the planet.'

'What better way to launch our brand globally than to become a sponsor of the Olympics? When people think of the Olympics, they think of excellence, integrity, and global goodwill and understanding.'

The international business media have given Lenovo plenty of goodwill, judging by the number of stories filed about the company's sponsorship of the Games.