Lenovo secured a ten-year arena naming rights agreement with the Carolina Hurricanes, rebranding the team’s home arena to “Lenovo Center” in September 2024. Along with the naming rights, Lenovo became the official technology partner of the Hurricanes, solidifying a long-term commitment to innovation and community engagement in North Carolina’s Research Triangle.
Our goals for this rebranding included:
Creating a seamless brand identity for the arena that incorporates Lenovo’s iconic logo lockup design and signature red color.
Spreading the word about the rebranding via social media through owned accounts and influencers to boost excitement around the partnership.
Hosting a private logo unveiling event for select guests including Lenovo and Lenovo Center employees, media, and influencers to kick off the official name change.
Showcasing the locations of the Lenovo Center and Lenovo headquarters through a dedicated animation featuring the iconic Lenovo TrackPoint to display at the unveiling event and share on social media.
Continuing the momentum and excitement around the Lenovo Center by finding ways to engage influencers in future sporting events and concerts at the arena.
Lenovo has called North Carolina home for nearly two decades and with the rebranding of the Lenovo Center, aims to further engage the local community with social and in-person activations that appeal to sports and entertainment fans.
On September 19th, we proudly unveiled the Lenovo Center, marking a milestone in brand awareness across Raleigh, NC. To make the launch truly memorable, we welcomed thousands of our local employees, 30+ local creators and influential business owners to the in-person celebration we held outside. Each creator and their guest received merch bags, adding an extra touch of exclusivity while encouraging real-time social sharing. To further drive engagement, we ran four raffles, offering attendees the chance to win Carolina Hurricanes tickets.
Attendees were also able to watch a private hockey practice for the Carolina Hurricanes inside the arena and view the new branding around the building. The event included free food and beverages for guests to enjoy before they viewed the curtain drop to unveil the new Lenovo Center logo on the outside of the building. Guests then received a Lenovo Center branded hockey puck as a keepsake to commemorate the event.
After the Canes practice, we displayed a Lenovo TrackPoint animated video on the jumbotron for all attendees. This video was created for the occasion of the official rebranding and featured a Lenovo TrackPoint traveling between Lenovo headquarters and the Lenovo Center, stopping at iconic Raleigh landmarks along the way. The video culminated in the TrackPoint joining others outside the arena in celebration, mirroring the event attendees were experiencing in real life. This animation served to illustrate the proximity between the company and the arena but also reinforce the message that Lenovo has made North Carolina its home now for almost 20 years, and our roots are only growing deeper. After being displayed in the arena, the animation was shared across social platforms belonging to Lenovo, Lenovo Center, and the Canes.
After the official naming rights adoption launch event, Lenovo engaged influencers in a variety of ways to keep up the momentum around the Lenovo Center:
Sabrina Carpenter Concert – Building on connections made at the Lenovo Center event, we handpicked five standout creators for an exclusive night in the Lenovo Suite Box at Sabrina Carpenter’s sold-out show. We enhanced their experience with drinks, snacks, and curated gift bags, resulting in 33+ social posts, 503K reach, and 584K impressions. Post samples: @allthingslillyann; @heytonytv; @RaleighIsGrowing; @ThrivingInRaleigh; @WelcomeToRaleighWood; @Alycearae
Ultra-Local Canes Giveaways – Strengthening our connection with the Raleigh community, we collaborated with popular "What to Do in Raleigh" accounts to run Hurricanes ticket giveaways. These hyper-local activations saw high engagement, with post views peaking at 19.6K and engagement rates reaching 10%.
Surprise & Delight Gifted Experience for Our Always-On Creator – Recognizing a true hockey fan, we surprised Caitlin Campbell, our always-on creator partner, with a VIP Hurricanes experience for her and her dad. This surprise and delight experience resulted in 7 added-value social posts that generated 321K in-feed views, 1.2K in-feed shares, and $43.3K in earned media value - a testament to the power of building and investing in meaningful long-term relationships.
By maintaining momentum with thoughtful, engaging activations, the Lenovo Center remains a top-of-mind brand presence, deepening connections with creators, fans, and the local community alike.
The Lenovo Center arena rebranding enables Lenovo to be synonymous with not just technology and innovation in The Triangle but also sports and entertainment.
Through a successful naming rights adoption and rebranding of the arena, we were able to combine Lenovo’s identifiable red branding and logo lockup into the designs for the Lenovo Center branding. We invited 100+ influencers to the unveiling event in September and this organic activation brought together a dynamic mix of micro to mega creators, all of whom were Raleigh-based. This inclusion of creators paid off with 80+ organic posts, a 652K reach, and 10.9 million estimated impressions. Additionally, social posts shared on owned channels resulted in 6.13 million impressions of Lenovo Center content.
