HP seeks online rappers in user-generated drive

Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing and ZenithOptimedia, the campaign will use the hpmystage.com URL to invite users to create hip-hop tracks using an online studio and design avatars to perform them. It is the first time HP has launched a user-generated campaign in China around music.

Charles Sampson, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing, said the inspiration to use hip-hop to engage the target audience of 18- to 25-year-olds had come partly from the recently released movie Kungfu Hip-Hop starring popular Chinese actors Jordan Chan and Fan Bing Bing. The film features strategic HP product placement, with Bing Bing using a laptop from the company in her role as a DJ.

Hip-hop culture is big in China and is becoming more widely embraced, said Robin Seow, director of marketing and SMB for HP China’s Personal Systems Group.

He said the website would be just one component of the initiative, which would also include composition and dance competitions at universities and malls. There are multiple ways to interact beyond product and price.

With a strong youth demand for platforms for self-expression, China presented a huge marketing opportunity, he said, noting the pervasiveness of internet culture among Chinese youth, compared with the US. Seow added that HP planned to collaborate with non-IT firms as it had done in the first phase, where Mingshen Bank offered customers the option of creating a personalised credit card using a design submitted to an art competition.

HP has grown significantly in popularity in China over the past five years. It is currently the market’s second-largest computer brand after Lenovo.

The first part of the campaign attracted 36,000 contributions, which will feature in a book to be distributed in high-traffic areas. The new phase is set to run until December.