Lenovo was already one of the world’s leading PC and mobile device companies, with a growing presence across Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, however, the launch of the K900 smartphone presented a broader opportunity: introduce a new product while making Lenovo feel more relevant to a younger, more socially active audience.
The launch formed part of Lenovo’s multi-market Asian campaign, “The Everyday Kobe Challenge,” fronted by NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. The campaign invited people to create original jump-shot videos inspired by Bryant’s famous three-pointers—either on a basketball court or in ordinary daily situations.
Lenovo partnered with Suitmedia to bring the campaign to Indonesia through a Facebook application. The platform allowed participants to submit videos, view entries, and vote for their favorites.
The objective was not only to promote a smartphone. It was to turn the launch into a social experience that connected Lenovo with creativity, movement, entertainment, and a new generation of consumers.
A High-Profile Product Launch Needed Local Participation
1. Global campaign visibility did not guarantee Indonesian engagement
The K900 launch had a strong international asset in Kobe Bryant. His recognition created immediate attention and gave the campaign a memorable face.
But a global celebrity alone could not determine how Indonesian audiences would participate. Lenovo needed to translate the campaign into an experience that felt accessible, entertaining, and relevant locally.
The Indonesian audience had to do more than watch Kobe perform. They needed a reason to create something themselves and share it with others.
This made the campaign platform as important as the campaign idea. If participation was difficult, confusing, or visually disconnected from Lenovo, the energy generated by the launch could quickly disappear.
2. The campaign needed to connect product awareness with brand change
Lenovo wanted to promote the K900, but the larger business objective was to strengthen the brand’s position in mobile devices.
The company was moving toward a younger, more consumer-focused image. That required communication beyond technical specifications or traditional product advertising.
The campaign had to show Lenovo as a brand that understood entertainment, creativity, social participation, and everyday culture.
The “Everyday Kobe Challenge” was suited to this goal because it connected a high-performance sporting idea with ordinary life. Participants could recreate a dramatic jump shot anywhere, making the campaign more approachable and less dependent on professional basketball skills.
3. The creative idea needed a simple action at its center
The campaign concept was easy to understand: shoot hoops the Kobe way and compete for a Lenovo smartphone.
That simplicity was a strength, but it also created a responsibility. The digital experience had to preserve the idea’s directness.
Users needed to know what the challenge was, how to submit a video, and how to support other participants. If those steps were unclear, the campaign would lose momentum.
The platform had to make the creative idea immediately actionable.
4. User-generated video creates a higher participation barrier
Asking people to upload a video requires more effort than asking them to click, like, or answer a question.
Participants had to think of an idea, record it, prepare it for upload, and submit it through the application. The platform needed to make each step feel manageable.
The campaign also needed to create enough visibility for submitted videos to receive attention. Participants are more likely to contribute when they believe their work will be seen and supported.
This meant the Facebook application had to support both content creation and community interaction.
5. The platform needed to feel like Lenovo
The campaign could not look like a generic contest hosted by a technology brand.
The interface needed to reflect Lenovo’s identity and support its desired shift toward a younger and more consumer-oriented image.
At the same time, the design could not overshadow the campaign mechanics. Users needed to enjoy the experience while still understanding how to participate.
The challenge was to combine brand expression with ease of use.
Designing a Facebook Experience That Turned Viewers Into Participants
1. We built the experience around one clear user journey
Suitmedia translated the campaign idea into a Facebook application centered on three actions:
- Understand the challenge.
- Submit an original jump-shot video.
- Vote for favorite entries.
This structure kept the experience focused. Users could arrive as curious visitors, become participants, or engage as supporters of someone else’s entry.
The journey also supported different levels of involvement. Not every visitor needed to upload a video. Some could watch and vote, while others could take the additional step of creating content.
This flexibility helped broaden participation without weakening the core campaign idea.
2. We made the instructions easy to follow
A campaign platform needs to answer basic questions quickly:
- What is the challenge?
- What kind of video can I submit?
- How do I upload it?
- How do I vote?
- What happens after I participate?
Suitmedia designed the application so that these instructions were clear and easy to access.
This reduced hesitation and helped users move from interest to action. The more quickly participants understood the rules, the more attention they could give to creating an original entry.
Clear instructions were especially important because the campaign invited creative interpretation. Users needed to understand the boundaries of the activity before experimenting with their own ideas.
3. We designed for creativity without making participation complicated
The campaign encouraged users to create jump-shot videos from basketball courts or everyday situations.
That opened the idea to a broad range of interpretations. A participant could demonstrate athletic skill, create a humorous scene, or incorporate the jump shot into an ordinary activity.
The application needed to support this creative freedom without adding technical complexity. The platform’s job was to provide a reliable submission path, not to dictate how participants expressed themselves.
This balance helped protect the campaign’s energy. The structure remained clear while the content stayed open-ended.
4. We made video submission central to the experience
The Facebook app allowed consumers to submit their own jump-shot videos.
This converted the campaign from a brand announcement into a collection of participant stories and performances. Each uploaded video became another piece of campaign content that could attract attention and encourage further interaction.
The submission function also gave Lenovo a way to demonstrate how the campaign was being interpreted in Indonesia. The brand could observe the variety of ideas, settings, and creative approaches generated by participants.
User-generated video therefore served both communication and learning purposes.
5. We introduced voting to create community involvement
Users could vote for their favorite videos.
Voting gave visitors a reason to explore content after they had arrived at the application. It also gave participants an incentive to share their entries and invite others to support them.
This created a natural social loop:
- A visitor discovers the challenge.
- A participant uploads a video.
- The participant shares the entry with friends.
- Friends visit the application to watch and vote.
- New visitors discover the wider campaign.
- Some of them decide to submit their own videos.
The voting system helped the campaign grow through participant networks rather than relying only on Lenovo’s official channels.
6. We designed the interface to make video discovery enjoyable
A user-generated campaign can become difficult to navigate if entries are presented without order.
The application needed to make it easy for visitors to browse videos and understand how to interact with them.
A clear content structure helped users move between entries, identify voting actions, and remain engaged with the campaign.
This was important for both participants and spectators. Participants needed their content to be visible, while spectators needed a simple way to discover and respond to different interpretations of the challenge.
7. We aligned the interface with Lenovo’s brand identity
The Facebook application was designed to reflect Lenovo’s visual identity while presenting a more energetic and consumer-focused tone.
The interface needed to feel modern and engaging, consistent with a smartphone launch aimed at a younger audience.
Brand alignment helped connect the campaign experience to the K900 product and to Lenovo more broadly. Users should remember not only the challenge, but also the company behind it.
This strengthened the relationship between campaign participation and brand perception.
8. We used Facebook because it already supported the desired behavior
Facebook was the appropriate environment for the campaign because it combined a large existing social audience with built-in sharing and interaction.
The platform allowed participants to submit content, share their involvement, and invite friends to vote without requiring them to move to an unfamiliar digital environment.
This lowered the barrier to participation. Users could engage within a platform they already understood.
The choice also helped Lenovo build on its existing social media presence rather than treating the campaign as a separate digital property.
9. We made the application part of a wider product launch
The Facebook application supported more than the video challenge.
It formed part of Lenovo’s broader launch campaign by creating a digital experience through which people could encounter the brand, interact with its product launch, and share the campaign with others.
This helped the K900 gain attention through behavior rather than only through product claims. The smartphone became associated with a campaign that was active, creative, and socially visible.
The platform therefore connected the launch message with a broader change in how Lenovo wanted to be perceived.
A Product Launch Became a Shared Social Experience
1. Lenovo gave audiences an active role in the launch
The application allowed people to participate in the K900 campaign rather than simply receive promotional messages.
Participants became creators, while other users became viewers and voters. This created several levels of involvement and increased the number of ways people could interact with Lenovo.
The campaign became more memorable because audiences invested their own effort and creativity in it.
2. The challenge created content that Lenovo could not have produced alone
Every submitted video added a new interpretation of the campaign.
This gave Lenovo a wider variety of creative material and showed how Indonesian audiences understood the idea. The brand could appear in different settings and tones while remaining connected to the common “Everyday Kobe” theme.
The result was a more diverse campaign experience than a single brand-produced video could provide.
3. Voting helped expand the campaign through personal networks
The voting mechanic encouraged participants to bring friends into the experience.
This gave the campaign an organic distribution mechanism. Participants had a personal reason to share, and their friends had a reason to visit the application.
As more people arrived to vote, the number of potential participants increased. This helped create social momentum around the launch.
4. Lenovo strengthened its younger consumer image
The campaign supported Lenovo’s transformation toward a younger, more consumer-based brand image.
The combination of Kobe Bryant, smartphone culture, user-generated video, Facebook participation, and creative competition created an environment that felt more energetic and socially relevant than a traditional product launch.
The platform did not communicate this shift through a slogan alone. It allowed users to experience Lenovo as a more interactive and contemporary brand.
5. Lenovo’s social media audience grew significantly
The campaign succeeded in increasing Lenovo’s social media fan base by a substantial amount.
While no specific figure is provided, the growth indicates that the campaign attracted new attention and encouraged more people to connect with Lenovo through its social channels.
This created a longer-term asset beyond the K900 launch. A larger social audience gave Lenovo a broader base for future product communication and campaigns.
6. The campaign created a reusable engagement model
The campaign demonstrated how a product launch could combine a clear creative idea, a simple participation mechanic, user-generated content, and peer voting.
This model could be adapted for other products and audiences. Its value came from the relationship between the parts:
- A recognizable idea attracted attention.
- A simple platform enabled participation.
- User-generated content created variety.
- Voting encouraged sharing.
- Brand-aligned design reinforced recognition.
The work gave Lenovo more than a one-time Facebook application. It provided a model for turning product communication into social participation.
What the Lenovo Campaign Reveals About Product Launches
1. A launch becomes more memorable when audiences help create it
People are more likely to remember a campaign when they contribute to it.
The “Everyday Kobe Challenge” gave users a role in shaping the launch. Their videos became part of the campaign, creating a stronger relationship between the audience and the product introduction.
2. Simple mechanics can support large creative possibilities
The campaign did not require a complicated game or technical experience.
It used a straightforward structure—create a jump-shot video and invite others to vote—but left the creative interpretation to participants.
This is a useful principle: keep the action simple while allowing the content to remain open.
3. Social growth should be built into the experience
The Facebook application did not rely only on Lenovo’s existing fan base.
Voting and participant sharing created a path for the campaign to reach new people. Social growth was part of the user journey, not a separate promotional task.
4. Celebrity association works best when audiences can participate
Kobe Bryant gave the campaign attention and a strong creative reference.
But the campaign became more relevant when audiences could reinterpret the idea in their own lives. The celebrity created the starting point; participation made the campaign local and personal.
5. Interface quality affects campaign credibility
A campaign may have a strong idea, but a confusing or unattractive application can weaken the brand’s presentation.
A clear and well-designed interface helps users trust the experience, understand what to do, and associate the campaign with a capable brand.
6. Brand transformation is demonstrated through behavior
Lenovo’s movement toward a younger consumer image was not communicated only through visual identity.
It was demonstrated through the type of campaign the company created: social, participatory, mobile-focused, and built around user creativity.
Strategic Insights for the C-Suite
- Make launch audiences part of the story.
A product launch becomes more memorable when customers create content, interpret the idea, and influence how others experience it. Participation can make the audience feel invested in the product. - Use simple mechanics to unlock creative behavior.
The strongest campaigns often have a clear action at their center. Keep the participation path easy while leaving room for users to express themselves in different ways. - Build distribution into the product experience.
If organic reach matters, give participants a personal reason to share. Voting, recognition, and peer support can turn each participant into a source of additional attention. - Use celebrity reach as a starting point, not the entire strategy.
A well-known figure can attract attention, but local participation makes the campaign relevant. Let audiences adapt the central idea to their own lives. - Treat the campaign interface as part of the brand.
The platform must be clear, attractive, and reliable. Users judge the brand through the experience of participating, not only through the campaign message.
