MarTech360 Interview With Alberto Spinelli, EMEA Chief Marketing Officer At Lenovo

“Our brand promise is offer “smarter technology for all”. So we build technologies, devices, solutions and services that we want to be able to serve any type of customer need – which is our main objective.”

Alberto, can you tell us about your professional background and your current role at Lenovo. 

I’m currently the Chief Marketing Officer for Lenovo’s EMEA business, but I’ve had a very varied career – both in large businesses and as an entrepreneur – building start-ups. It’s equipped me with so many skills that have allowed me to thrive in marketing – especially in Lenovo where we value that entrepreneurial approach to business. It’s important to try new things, so if you have a good idea, we encourage experimentation!

For me, the common denominator across all the roles I’ve taken on has been in driving change – not just in marketing, but across the board. It’s what makes things interesting and it’s how we’ve been demonstrating the value of marketing throughout Lenovo’s varied business.

What sets Lenovo apart from its competitors in the technology industry? 

There is so much! We’ve traditionally been seen as a global PC business, but we’re so much more than that. Today, around 40% of our business comes from the non-PC side – offering everything from the device in your pocket, to the infrastructure powering the cloud, delivering one of the largest portfolio of products and services anywhere. Our Motorola brand and our infrastructure (data centres and High Performance Computing) businesses are driving much of the new growth – and we’re at the forefront of powering the next generation in AI implementation throughout our operations.

We operate in 180 markets across the world, but despite this vast size, take a very localised approach to marketing – driven by customer needs and cultural differences. That presents its own unique challenges, but ultimately, it’s designed to serve the our customers, rather than adopting the model of ‘one size fits all’.

What inspired you to join Lenovo, and what do you see as the company’s core values? 

I’ve already mentioned it, but Lenovo is a highly entrepreneurial, change embracing organisation – and that excites me. It was evident from even my early conversations that the businesses desire to transform – building on its foundations in PC and moving towards the technology powerhouse it is today. That transformation is now well underway and I’m proud to have played my part in driving it – building a modern marketing team that has the right skills to set Lenovo up for its future.

Storytelling is one of the oldest, yet most powerful communication tools we have as humans- How can brands use storytelling to build brand awareness and increase its visibility, particularly in a crowded and competitive marketplace? 

The more crowded things become, the more important it is to nail the fundamentals – knowing your customer. My university background focused on machine learning – so a data informed approach to targeting that continually learns, is high on my agenda. With the right inputs you can much more effectively deliver approaches that resonate – and ultimately drive sales. 

You also need to demonstrate that you believe in your own products – walking the talk. It’s one of thereasons we have invested so much time in working with two key sponsorships – F1 and Ducati. Both organisations have implemented our tech – from data centres in the back-end, to our PC and tablet products in the front end. For example, with F1, our hardware is used trackside – able to perform under hugely challenging conditions. The kit gets shaken, it gets cooked, it gets frozen, it gets placed in dusty and dry environments and still, it delivers every race – all 24 races across the 2024 season. If that’s not a way to tell a story through action, I don’t know what is!

Only last week, Francesco (Pecco) Bagnaia, rider of the Ducati Lenovo Team, won the MotoGP Riders’ World Title for the second year in a row – and whilst we can’t claim that as a total victory for Lenovo, I like to think that the embedding of our technology within the team as played a significant part. 

Finally – we believe in building common interest communities. The Lenovo Legion community – something we only established, and built from scratch just over two years ago, now boasts 225,000 active members, delivered in Spanish, French, Italian, English, Swedish, Polish and, for the first time, in Arabic. It’s a place where genuine conversations happen across community members and a testament to a lot of hard work from the team behind it, ensuring that we offer a compelling reason to keep coming back and engage.

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How has Lenovo balanced the need for innovation with the need for maintaining data privacy and security in the digital age? 

Our brand promise is offer “smarter technology for all”. So we build technologies, devices, solutions and services that we want to be able to serve any type of customer need – which is our main objective. Innovation is at the core of Lenovo, pushing the boundaries when it comes to product design and form factors – from launching the first ever foldable screen PC, to innovating on rollable screens. These are gifts for marketers – as they drive customer demand.

Privacy and security is always our prime concern, our starting point, before we even consider other elements, as broken trust is very challenging to repair – especially as we move in the AI era. Our Chief Security Officer and their team ensure that customers can have absolute confidence that we’re acting in their best interests – in whichever market we operate, complying with all the regulations that come as part of operating in a global business.

How has Lenovo’s approach to AI and ML evolved over time, and what advancements can we anticipate in the future? 

We’ve been using AI for a while – not least across our global supply chain. When you’re manufacturing roughly one product every four seconds across 30+ sites, and delivering millions of products across 180 markets, you need to have robust tools that can effectively manage that process. AI and machine learning have been fundamental in enabling the smooth running of this operation.

It’s also core to our product offering where we look to deliver ‘hybrid-AI’ – ensuring that data is only shared within the environment it is required. You’ll see us bring AI enabled PCs to market next year, but we’re also working on a much larger scale in implementing AI tech throughout our organisation and product portfolio. For us it’s about how we enhance what we’re already offering.

For marketing purposes, we’re taking a broad view – how we use AI to gather and write content – or at least use it to help as a base for idea generation. Ultimately, we don’t see the human factor disappearing within the creative process. It’s about augmentation, exploiting AI capabilities and giving our teams the opportunity to focus on the areas that make a real difference to our customers.

In today’s climate, there is a lot of instability, from budget cuts to layoffs to the state of the economy. How do you see marketing teams leading the charge/navigating this complex environment? 

I often tell my team that marketing is the glue – the thing that binds much of the rest of the business and one of the areas that can take an objective look at what we’re doing as a business and build linkages where others may not have seen them.

When you operate on a global scale there will always be complexities to overcome, but so long as you focus your efforts on understanding, meeting and then exceeding the requirements of your customer, you won’t go far wrong.

What advice would you give to other marketing leaders which helped you personally? 

Keep pushing boundaries of communicating with customers – find ways to get closer to them, understanding their wants and needs. With a portfolio of products and size of Lenovo’s your customer base will vary, so take time to understand who you are really targeting and the kind of experience you are offering them – through the intelligent interpretation of the data that you have available to you. The more focused you can be, the better the outcome. Most importantly, have fun and try new things – so long as you acknowledge quickly where things aren’t working, you’ll come out with often unexpected, delightful outcomes!

What is the biggest problem you or your team is solving this year? 

We’re refining our approach to ecosystem marketing – looking at Lenovo’s business as a whole and finding ways to tell the wider story “from the pocket to the cloud”. It’s work that is never complete and as we grow, needs constant re-evaluation – but that’s what makes it fun.

Is there anything that you’re currently reading, or any favourite books, that you’d recommend? 

From a professional perspective – The Ecosystem economy, by Miklos Gabor Dietz and Venkat Atluri. It’s a take on how the global economy is being transformed by technology, and the opportunities that present themselves from a reshaping of traditional sector silos.

Personally, I’m a big runner and I’m currently absorbing “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami. The memoir explores the experiences of long-distance running and its parallels with life, delving into the challenges of running and spotlighting the discipline and perseverance required. 

Ultimately, it’s about creating balance in life, setting and pursuing goals, adapting to change and enjoying the journey along the way – something we should all take to heart!

Thanks, Alberto!