Dell Global has a long lineage in participating at global sporting events like F1, Tour de France. However, for Dell China this was their first initiative to engage in sports marketing. The timing of this campaign coincided with one of the biggest sports events in the world – The Tokyo Olympics 2020. However they faced few challenges;

1) Brand tracker indicated that their image as being a transformational leader in technology kept dropping. Brand recognition (-2%), Innovation (-4%), and Relevance (-4%) dropped in 2020 2H.

2) Besides, due to limited media budgets (< 4M RMB) Dell couldn’t become an official sponsor of Olympics unlike its rival competitors who were willing to spend more.

Thus, Dell had to play smart in the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics event. Specifically, they had to leverage this mega sporting event to showcase its brand as being innovative and advanced in technology.

Winning a gold medal in Olympics is a common dream every Chinese athlete and people in general aspire. Winning in sports is usually regarded as a team work, that is achieved after hours of relentless hard work.

But few people know that an IT/Technology brand can also be that team support behind the success of any winning team. Not many can envisage that advanced technology can actually help athletes break their own limitations and improve their performance.

By leveraging these findings, Dell created the key campaign message: ‘Achieve China Dream with the Invisible Greatness’. The invisible tech support provided by Dell was communicated through different scenarios for e.g. use of data collection during daily trainings, AI simulation analysis, etc. Every communication touchpoint leveraged the use of Dell technology to improve athlete’s performance.

Rise of Niche Sports - Dell B2B’s core target audience were ‘Business Decision Makers’ and they showcased high affinity towards sports as their passion point. There was also a rising interest among Chinese consumers towards Niche sports like Skiing, Snowboarding etc.

Sports industry lacked digitization - Post Covid-19, many categories accelerated digitalization. However, ‘Sports industry’ was still seen slow to instil rapid digitization.

In China, For China Strategy - Dell B2B centered its messaging to demonstrate its superior tech advantages to sports and other industries. It sponsored a dark horse niche sports team instead of an already established sports team. By doing this it eliminated barrier of high sponsorship investment. They also smartly used AI/ Big Data to improve athlete’s performance throughout the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Thus Dell B2B business showcased its full potential to transform tech sols for different industries by demonstrating it on a rising Chinese sports team.

Dell launched its campaign on social, government site, video app, OOH LED, industry & its own events. It utilized Dell technology like AI/ Big data to train and improve athletes’ performances throughout the Olympics

1)Before

Selected a niche team - China Rowing and Canoeing Team. Established AI Sports Training System by using real-time video with pose detection, biomechanics analysis, deep rowing pose detection model.

2)During -Utilized multiple media to communicate benefits.

Social & Pre-roll videos showcased before / during scenarios of athletes getting benefited from Dell’s AI/ technologies.

3D outdoor brought out the innovation benefit even more vividly.

PR and social posts educated in-depth benefits to business sectors.

Involved all Dell China Employees to be the brand ambassadors.

3)After

Used livestreaming, launched Dell Technology Forum where athletes shared their winning stories using Dell technology. Dell R&D provided tech support to athletes throughout the Olympics.

1. Impressions reached 8,119 million and social buzz increased 170% in 2 weeks’ time. (Source: Miaozhen, Data Story Platform)

2. Dell received 500+ Marketing Ready Leads from this campaign, and the total sales revenue of Dell Commercial Marketing increased by 30% YoY in Q3.

3. Dell established the AI / Big Data Joint-lab with China Rowing & Canoeing Association. The AI enabled edge solutions helped in improving their training performance.

4. Despite its limited investments, campaign received huge impact and market exposure. Gained respect and admiration from customers and government for supporting a rising Chinese niche team.