Sports are a hot topic especially to Intel’s new target of young adults 18-34 in China. They also are very tuned into global events such as the Olympic Games. We decided that with the Summer Olympics in London in 2012, it would be a great opportunity for Intel to launch the Ultrabook and create awareness especially to their new target. With a limited budget and media costs becoming extremely high during the Olympics period, Intel needed to find a way to capitalize on the audience that the Olympics draw, while also not breaking the bank.

Based on our research, we knew that mobile phones would become the main platform for people in China to keep up-to-date with Olympic coverage and an easy way for fans to track their favorite athletes. WeChat, an extremely popular mobile APP built on QQ (a favorite Social tool in China for young adults 18-34) would provide Intel with the a perfect opportunity to reach their new target as it allows users to communicate with one another through audio, video, phone and text. Therefore, we planned for Intel to partner with WeChat to create an Olympics-centered program using all forms of WeChat’s possible communication platforms to provide news and commentary and keep users in the know about the Olympics. Intel’s Ultrabook features would also be embedded into the broadcast with influential celebrity commentators who were invited to host programs through WeChat radio – becoming the very first audio-based mobile program created in China. As an incentive, users could also interact with the program broadcast and be entered to win an Ultrabook.

Not only was this the first audio-based mobile program, it was also the first commercial cooperation with WeChat ever! Intel and WeChat had 18.3mil fans add the official ID to their friends list who could receive the news and Olympic commentary; 49 mil interactions were generated, with fans interacting 2.7 times on average. 14.7 mil users visited the mini-site and produced 23.8 mil page views during the Olympic period. More than 900 thousand users were attracted to this site every day with only 1.7% fans exiting the APP during the campaign period.

Within the APP program, Intel brand exposure reached over 155 mil times the average. During the Olympic period, Intel related online searches were over 10,000. 70+ online and 20+ offline individual media outlets reported on the Intel and WeChat Olympic APP for free.