Monday, May 21st, 2012
China is the super factory of the globe. The country is home to various manufacturing plants that specialize in products that are used everyday across the world. Now, these brands want to introduce themselves to other nations. And they’re doing it through product placement.
Lenovo is one of the brands leading the pack. It recently had a product integration in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” Brains—a robot character in the movie—comfortably disguises itself as a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge Plus laptop. Its appearance introduced Lenovo to various audiences.
So far, Lenovo’s efforts have been rewarded by quarterly figures. Last November, the company became the second largest PC vendor in the world, edging out Dell.
Most experts attribute the surge to the movie appearance. With a world income of $1.1 billion, the movie ensured some serious brand exposure for Lenovo.
While there are other Chinese product placements in the third Transformers sequel—like Shuhua milk, Lenovo’s appearance is definitely the most noticeable. Apart from its integration with Brains, Lenovo PCs also appear in office scenes in the movie. According to sources, these extra appearances reinforced the brand image Lenovo wants to portray.
In the past, Lenovo has also sewn itself in different product placement opportunities. Most notably, the company secured a product placement in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Its sponsorship of the event drew major international recognition.
