Objectives

Lenovo is a technology leader offering a full portfolio of PCs, tablets, monitors, accessories, smartphones and more. Since 1995 they have shipped more than half a billion PCs and make three devices every second.

Businesses rely on technology to thrive. But, with rapid technology advancements and the inevitable toll taken on IT assets, technology can fast become a costly asset management burden and a worrying security headache.

That’s why Lenovo take their responsibility to operate a globally sustainable business seriously and are committed to transitioning to a circular economy through innovations in supply chain, product design and services.

We were tasked with creating greater reputational awareness and supporting demand for Lenovo’s ESG sustainability services, with particular focus on its Asset Recovery Services (ARS).

ARS is an environmentally friendly hardware recycling and data disposition service designed to help businesses responsibly dispose of, and extract the maximum possible value from, any hardware, including Laptops, Desktops, Peripherals, Enterprise Hardware and more.

We needed to engage B2B customers creatively to cut through the myriad of sustainability focused B2B campaigns in market and drive uptake of the ARS program.

• Objective: Contribute to decreasing e-waste by raising awareness of ARS, delivering 25% increase in ESG Services’ sales opportunities  
• Campaign Timeline: September 2022 to November 2022
• Budget: $152,000 AUD

Strategy and Execution

The insight

Since 2000, e-waste has grown from 20 million to 50 million tonnes annually, making it the world’s fastest growing solid waste stream. That could more than double by 2050, to approximately 111 million tonnes/year (Source: UN).

To support campaign development, we uncovered two key insights:

1. That high-value recoverable materials from e-waste, such as gold, silver and platinum, conservatively valued at US $57 billion, is being lost to landfill and incinerators every year.
2. With ARS, the value of these lost materials in e-waste could be extracted and offset against future technology costs

This demonstrated a significant opportunity for ARS as a powerful solution to mitigate the environmental risks associated with e-waste whilst providing clear and significant value back to customers.

Strategic solution

With B2B communications ripe for creativity, we saw an opportunity to demonstrate that businesses are literally throwing away gold, one of our most precious metals, by not adopting a circular approach.

We launched ‘Lenovo Precious Metals’, showcasing how ARS can turn hardware e-waste destined for landfill into unique, precious treasures.

We collaborated with Australian sustainable jeweller, Holly Ryan, who built her business sourcing recycled metals and stones. Lenovo provided gold, sterling silver and platinum extracted from e-waste through ARS, and Holly created a set of four unique, one-off designer rings.

These rings formed the central component of the campaign as symbols of the power of the circular economy and how ARS can breathe new life, and value, into old technology.  We shot a feature length video of Holly producing the “Precious Metals” rings and sharing why she partnered with Lenovo.

A bespoke Precious Metals campaign page  housed the video and supporting content, including video cut downs, an infographic, executive blogs, tailored media releases and a white paper titled ‘Rethinking E-waste in a Circular Economy”.

We drafted the paper from data from our YouGov survey, which surveyed 268 Australian business leaders and 1,000 employees on e-waste awareness and practices. Lenovo also surveyed 30 New Zealand business leaders to similarly understand their perspectives.

The research helped educate on key issues such as the missed economic opportunity due to low awareness of e-waste value. Other issues included employee expectations and favorability around responsible employer e-waste management. This allowed us to extend the story by tapping into talent attraction and engagement conversations.

Tactical highlights

Phase 1: Launch (September)

• ANZ earned media launch:
  • B2B targeting business, technology, environmental and workplace media leveraging exclusive cuts of data.
  • B2C engagement leading with a focus on Holly and the rings.
• Flow of organic and paid LinkedIn and social media content, promoted via Lenovo-owned and Holly’s channels. 45 and 15 second video cut downs, blog posts and social ads supported top of funnel marketing engagement.
• Demand generation targeting decision-makers with white paper and ARS assets.

Phase 2: Broad awareness (October - November)

• Experimental investment in newly launched social media for good platform, WeAre8 to promote 45 second and 15 second videos.

Phase 3: TechWorld ANZ (November)

• Smarter Technology Empowering a Changing World panel at Lenovo’s TechWorld ANZ discussing sustainability with Holly as panel member, attended by media, B2B customers and partners.
• Precious Metals video playing throughout TechWorld, rings on display.
• Holly at a workshop making jewellery, talking to attendees.
• Platinum ring auctioned to support Holly’s charity, Seabin (supporting ocean clean up).

Results

Business impact

• Our goal was a 25% increase in ESG services. We achieved a 42% increase in ESG Services’ sales opportunities with 67% won
• +2.2-point increase in Lenovo’s local reputation (RepTrak), leading compared to Australian tech industry average.
• 4% increase in consumer brand awareness 

Comms impact

• 13 million earned reach through 38 pieces of editorial (non paid) coverage across national, tech, B2B, fashion and environmental media
• Total social impressions 3,458,167 
• Programmatic Display: 6.3million impressions & 4,393 clicks (600% above forecast)
• Paid LinkedIn: 985,383 impressions, 2,624 clicks (224% above forecast); CTR average of 0.84% (ANZ ave benchmark 0.35%); 40% view rate.
• Precious Metals page views: 15,902, 85% of users from ANZ.
• WeAre8: 8% CTR; 2.6 tonnes of carbon emissions offset across campaign; 69% of audience said ad shifted their attitude towards Lenovo "more favourably" 
• Holly’s Instagram’s reach and audience engagement: 8K impressions, 7K reach; 4% engagement rate   

Media