HP unveils entertainment marketing strategies

HP CHINA   CAMPAIGN   ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING

Beijing - It's no secret online has become a lifestyle mantra for youths in China, but for personal PC maker HP, its biggest challenge is to engage youths through what it calls "entertainment marketing".

Robin Seow, director of marketing & SMB, personal systems group for HP China, said entertainment marketing is defined as being able to stay relevant  to consumers so they will participate and be entertained.

He said a key objective of entertainment marketing is to emotionally connect with your target audience, which underscores HP's tagline - The computer is personal again.

Seow said one of the main tactics of entertainment marketing in Mainland China is to leverage celebrity endorsements to connect to youths. 

Some of those celebrities engaged in previous campaigns include singer songwriter of hip hop Kong Li Qi, designer Vivienne Tam and Fang Wen Jie who shot to fame in local reality show SuperGirl. 

With its Wave Three campaign underway, titled  "Youth, Camera! - My Computer • My Stage" that opens up a much broader format for China youths to express and fulfill their "inspiration to create" and "desire to connect and share" through movie creation.

Seow said response has been positive with more than 3 million unique visitors to the site since the launch and 150 000 videos submitted.

He said the campaign aims to provide a platform for youths to express themselves  so as to achieve the intent of user-generated content. 

Seow said the key challenge to engage youths to HP is to stay relevant .

However, if they are able to provide a platform to engage youths and gain  their acknowledgment then the word-of-mouth from the brand campaign will spiral and turn into an advantage for the company. 

Citing the latest IDC report for 2009 Q2, HP notebook gains a 70% year-on-year increase of market share in Mainland China, much higher than the average 58.8%.

Compared to three years ago where HP was in 3rd position, Seow said brand acceptance has grown and is now going head to head with Lenovo.

He added that HP's brand presence is strong in Tier 1 cities of China and is employing a multi-engagement strategy to expand aggressively into Tier 5 and 6 cities as well as into the rural areas.

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