Lenovo shifts from awareness to experience to sell enterprise AI

In India’s crowded enterprise tech market, when it decided to roll out its limited-edition ThinkPad X1 Aura Edition, developed with Intel, Lenovo decided to sidestep traditional advertising. Instead, the company worked with Dentsu B2B and Posterscope on a campaign that emphasised direct encounters with the product. It put the AI-powered laptop into the hands of business and IT decision-makers rather than relying solely on digital promotion.

The strategy marked a pivot towards experiential marketing at scale, positioning live activations and interactive formats as central to influencing high-value buyers. Over a three-month period, the campaign blended on-ground demonstrations, targeted outreach, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) media to attract attention in key metro hubs.

Dentsu B2B, the agency’s B2B experience arm in India, led the planning. Its guiding principle, according to the company, was that “real awareness comes from real experience.”

Scaling through outdoor formats

Immersive showcases were staged in tech parks across Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, designed to reach business professionals in the environments where they spend their working days. These activations included registration-driven demos where visitors could test features including Smart Share, Smart Care, and Smart Mode.

The concentrated activations were designed for depth rather than scale.

Explaining the rationale, Abhay Kulkarni, managing director of Dentsu B2B, said, “With the Aura campaign, we wanted to do more than just talk about innovation – we wanted people to experience it. The anamorphic display showcased the Lenovo ThinkPad’s design and AI capabilities in a truly immersive way, while our experiential zones allowed business audiences to interact with the product's intelligence, speed, and adaptability firsthand.”

To achieve reach without losing focus, Posterscope, Dentsu India’s out-of-home specialist, mapped foot traffic across business districts. The agency created live “tech playgrounds” in high-density locations while simultaneously pushing awareness through large-format installations at airports.

Imtiyaz Vilatra, chief executive officer of Posterscope India, described the approach. “This campaign for Lenovo Aura was about merging the physical and digital worlds to let commercial audiences experience innovation for themselves,” he said. “The experiential zones served as tech playgrounds while the anamorphic content turned traditional media into visual storytelling. It’s a great example of how brand storytelling can go beyond static screens and leave lasting impressions.”

Measured engagement

The OOH component was extensive. At Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal 3, Lenovo’s anamorphic content reached an estimated 1.1 million passengers. Mumbai’s Terminal 2 registered 782,500 viewers, while Bengaluru’s Terminal 2 logged 727,200.

Chennai’s two terminals together delivered 335,400. Meanwhile, at Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre, the display drove 352,500 impressions, with unique reach calculated at 124,100. Across DOOH placements, Posterscope reported 1.58 million impressions, with an average frequency of 2.6.

The activations, though concentrated, were designed for depth rather than scale. Over two days, more than 1,300 business professionals interacted with the Aura laptop across the three city events. Lenovo has not disclosed downstream conversion metrics, but agency partners emphasised the importance of familiarity over mass exposure in influencing enterprise purchases.

From Lenovo’s perspective, the campaign was tied to a broader narrative about the role of AI in workplace computing. “With the launch of the ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition, we set out to showcase what Smarter AI for All truly looks like, intelligent, intuitive, and purpose-built for today’s enterprise users,” said Chandrika Jain, director marketing, Lenovo India.  

Implications for B2B marketing

While the campaign produced notable media footprints, its value lies less in sheer numbers than in what it suggests about how technology companies are recalibrating B2B outreach. Traditional advertising in enterprise categories often risks low cut-through. By contrast, immersive activations allow firms to highlight product features in context while using outdoor media to amplify brand visibility.

The experiment underscores two trends. First, that experiential strategies—long associated with consumer goods—are increasingly being tested in business-to-business categories. Second, that OOH formats, including anamorphic displays, are being reimagined not as awareness-only tools but as vehicles for storytelling in high-density commercial spaces.

For agencies, the challenge lies in balancing novelty with operational complexity. Live demonstrations across multiple cities demand logistical investment, while the effectiveness of airport displays hinges on whether transient impressions translate into meaningful engagement. For marketers, the question is whether such campaigns can move beyond short-term awareness spikes to influence enterprise procurement cycles, which are typically longer and more layered than consumer buying decisions.

The bigger picture

Lenovo’s Aura initiative illustrates a wider point: as competition intensifies in India’s enterprise technology sector, companies are under pressure to differentiate not only their products but also the way they reach decision-makers. The willingness to experiment with experiential tactics signals a recognition that visibility alone is insufficient; buyers expect to see and test capabilities before committing.

For the advertising and marketing community, the campaign offers a case study in blending on-ground activations with OOH spectacle. It also raises questions about scalability, sustainability, and measurable impact in a category where sales are driven by procurement committees rather than impulse.

In that respect, Lenovo’s effort is less about setting a template than about testing boundaries. As enterprise marketers search for effective ways to connect with fragmented audiences, the lessons from Aura may lie as much in its operational complexities as in its headline figures.