CRN Sales & Marketing Awards - Finalist Q&A with Amy Louise Joy, retail marketing manager at Lenovo

Amy Louise Joy talks being a finalist at this year's CRN Sales & Marketing Awards

What prompted you to enter ‘Best marketing campaign – vendor’ award

Lenovo entered the Best marketing campaign – vendor category to showcase the strength of its collaborative work with Currys. Together, we delivered a highly integrated, full-funnel marketing campaign built on partnership, trust and shared commercial ambition. The activity spanned ATL execution, social competitions, online activation and impactful in-store POS, all aligned across our Windows PC portfolio. This campaign demonstrated not only marketing excellence but also the power of a truly unified vendor–retailer relationship.

What would winning this award mean to both your people, partners & customers

For our people, winning such a prestigious award would be a powerful acknowledgement of an exceptional campaign and an even stronger partnership. It would honour the collective effort of everyone involved - from the creative teams who shaped the vision to the GTM managers who brought it to life. This would be a moment of real pride, affirming that their dedication, expertise, and relentless drive delivered something truly outstanding.

For our partner Currys, it would honour the trust, collaboration, and shared ambition that powered a seamless, insight-driven full-funnel activation and delivered exceptional results. It would also showcase to our wider Lenovo partners the true potential of working with us - demonstrating the scale of impact, innovation, and commercial success that can be achieved when we unite behind a common goal.

And for customers, it would reinforce our commitment to creating meaningful, relevant experiences that guide them confidently from discovery to purchase.

Where have been the biggest challenges of the current year so far and how have you overcome them, have your people and partners helped?

A key challenge faced by any tech marketing brand is discoverability and the growing paralysis of consumer choice. In a market saturated with laptops from countless brands - each shouting about AI PCs -it becomes overwhelming and difficult for customers to navigate. Lenovo began to break through this noise by working closely with our partners to combine price-led messaging with focus on educating customers about product USPs. By anchoring our storytelling in real customer use cases, we built trust and clarity, helping shoppers feel confident that they were choosing the right laptop for their needs.

What would you say has been Lenovo greatest achievement?

A major driver of this success has been Lenovo’s rapid expansion in AI-related products and services, which grew 72 per cent year-on-year (25-26) and now account for nearly one-third of total Lenovo revenue. Lenovo has strengthened its market leadership in PCs and smart devices, achieving record smartphone activation levels and continued dominance in global laptop sales. As someone that has worked in the PC tech industry for years, and seen the boom of AI, I am incredibly proud to be working at Lenovo is market leading with AI innovation.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the coming 12 months? And how do you plan on capitalising on these opportunities.

The tech market is set to face significant challenges in the coming months and into early next year, largely driven by rising RAM costs. During this period, one of the strongest opportunities for all tech brands will be leaning into credit propositions and value-added bundles. As we enter FY27 Q2, PC prices in particular are increasing, and customers may feel frustrated about paying noticeably more than they did in FY26 Q2. To ease some of this concern, brands have a real opportunity to work closely with their partners to offer flexible credit options - such as buy-now-pay-later - and compelling bundles. Instead of purchasing only a laptop, customers could now receive a full ecosystem of products, reinforcing the message that although prices are rising, we are committed to supporting them and delivering meaningful value throughout their purchasing journey.

Which technology trend is still in the hype and what are you putting your bets on?

In the tech hardware space specifically, I’m putting my bets on AI PCs. They’re still in the hype phase, but the shift toward on-device AI, longer battery life, and real-time processing will fundamentally change how consumers and businesses use their devices. As software catches up, AI PCs will move from “nice to have” to “expected,” and brands that invest early in ecosystem-level value - credit propositions, bundles, and services- will win the long game.

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