THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Broadcast Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold innovation story while cementing Lenovo as an industry thought leader.
GOAL
Promote the launch of the ThinkPad X1 Fold - the world’s first foldable PC1 - by utilizing Lenovo’s video assets and leveraging a multi-platform campaign among a business-focused audience.
STRATEGIC INSIGHT
Lenovo developed a revolutionary new laptop made for highly mobile, tech-savvy professionals who demand the best tools. The ThinkPad X1 Fold is a full-fledged laptop with a foldable screen, offering unprecedented portability without compromising productivity and reliability.
BuzzFeed over-indexes in reaching business decision makers, making it an ideal partner for introducing the ThinkPad X1 Fold to Lenovo’s core target.
MAIN IDEA
BuzzFeed promoted Lenovo’s Reshape Your Reality and Rethink What’s Possible spots across multiple platforms in the US and Canada through Video Everywhere, Twitter pre-roll, and customized Spotlight units.
Media was contextually aligned and also targeted to relevant audiences such as business leaders, tech enthusiasts, prosumers, laptop buyers, and interest areas like business and tech.
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
BuzzFeed utilized several strategies from its Lighthouse data studio to distribute the videos to its audience across platforms, allowing for in-flight optimizations to maximize effectiveness.
Distribution started out across 6 platforms, where the ThinkPad X1 Fold was EVERYWHERE! As video performance was monitored, delivery was narrowed to BuzzFeed O&O, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, which were performing best.
The Twitter sponsorship aligned Lenovo’s pre-roll assets with relevant BuzzFeed video tweets from digital illustrating to stories behind trending memes. They were also promoted with tweets to further drive awareness and lift.
Both creatives were used to build a Spotlight - a super visible, BuzzFeed-only custom unit - that ran onsite in the US and Canada.
RESULTS
The partnership got the word out about the ThinkPad X1 Fold to BuzzFeed’s vast audience, delivering 128% to goal vs. guaranteed impressions. On Twitter, content alignment and paid promotion led to over-delivery by 3.8x the guaranteed impressions.
Casting a wide net with Video Everywhere allowed the campaign to hit multiple KPIs by optimizing delivery towards a mix of platforms with unique strengths. Instagram in-feed placements were the top performer when it came to CTR, garnering clicks at a rate 4x the benchmark. The videos also exceeded CTR benchmarks for Facebook in-feed and Ad Breaks. YouTube came through with the strongest completion and view rates, followed by BuzzFeed O&O, where engaged superfans come for content.
After assessing Q4 performance, learnings were used to optimize Spotlight delivery in Q1. By the end of the flight, Spotlight units were surpassing benchmarks for CTR and VTR in the US and Canada.
The ads produced high levels of social engagement and connected with relevant viewers. The top audiences by CTR were the key campaign targets of business leaders and laptop buyers, followed by BuzzFeed News and politics interests.
A Kantar brand lift study revealed that the Spotlight units and Video Everywhere worked well together to convey brand messaging. Site visitors exposed to both formats came to associate the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold with being the world's first foldable PC1.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold campaign demonstrates the strategic power of starting broad and optimizing towards the platforms and audiences that are working best. Utilizing 1st party targeting not only got the brand in front of BuzzFeed’s audience, but ensured the media hit the demographics that matter most and are the most receptive. This approach achieved strong audience engagement and brand momentum for the world’s first foldable PC1, exceeding KPI benchmarks and driving key audiences towards considering the business laptop.
“Tapping into the power of BuzzFeed’s cross-platform media optimization strategy and Lighthouse first-party data studio allowed us to reach our key audiences and begin moving them down the purchase funnel. We look forward to building on this momentum with these learnings for future campaigns.”
- Kaitlin Philbin, Media Manager, Performics
LENOVO and THINKPAD are trademarks of Lenovo.
[1] Based on research conducted by Lenovo in June 2020 of PCs sold by major PC manufacturers shipping > 1 million units worldwide annually.