Brand value builds business value

While today, many recognize the power of Snapdragon in delivering experiences across devices, just a few years ago many consumers would not have thought about the technology at the heart of their device. As the importance of technology and decision making has increased, we have increased our investment in building brand affinity for Snapdragon. Over time this investment has been paying off — awareness is two times higher than the competitive average and it continues to increase year over year. In China alone, we have 85% overall brand awareness for Snapdragon.

Our goal is for consumers to demand Snapdragon as they move to purchase decisions for new devices. We’re seeing this manifest itself in the smartphone space with Android users:

• Consumers both prefer Snapdragon and are nine times more likely to buy Snapdragon versus competitors.
• Smartphone owners are 10 times more likely to recommend Snapdragon more than any other competitor.
• When it comes time for a new smartphone, purchase intent for smartphones powered by Snapdragon is three times higher than competitors.
• Consumers are willing to pay a 16% premium over devices that aren’t powered by Snapdragon. That has grown 12% from last year alone.
• Consumers consider Snapdragon the best-in-class Android processor in every price range versus the competition.

The halo effect from building brand value in the smartphone category is now extending to other device categories. Consumers who are familiar with Snapdragon in smartphones are about two times more likely to consider devices powered by Snapdragon across other product categories, including connected cars. And it’s not just consumers who recognize the value in the Snapdragon brand, but our partners do as well. Most recently, Samsung leveraged the Snapdragon fireball and the newly released Snapdragon sonic in TV advertisements for the S24 Ultra, and General Motors showcased Snapdragon in the release of the 2025 Cadillac ESCALADE IQ.

As CMO, strengthening the Snapdragon brand and tying brand value to business value for Qualcomm will continue to be a top priority.

In 2024, we are expanding our marketing efforts in two major areas. First, it’s forging and leveraging brand partnerships, and second is building community. I’ll start with how we’re expanding our partnerships.

As we enter our second season with Manchester United, we are taking it up a notch — a big notch. Kicking off in July 2024, Snapdragon will be featured as the front-of-shirt partner. When the players take the pitch, their kits are the number one platform driving brand awareness, purchase consideration and loyalty among their one billion global fans and followers. In fact, 96% of fans can name Manchester United’s shirt partner. Our relationship will be pulled through into marketing, creative and campaigns as well as the high-profile efforts of the teams’ other global partners. That will deliver unparalleled global visibility, deep-fan engagement and a unique opportunity to align our brand with the passion and excitement of the sport.

Just this past year we became a brand partner of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. We wasted no time activating on our partnership using Snapdragon innovation and a few months later, we created a first-of-its-kind virtual reality (VR) fan experience ‘VIP Garage Tour’. Typically, an F1 garage is an exclusive space, but we democratized it for Mercedes fans attending Formula One races. Lewis Hamilton acted as the virtual tour guide through the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team garage, and the experience included behind-the-scenes access to the car, Engineering Treehouse and PETRONAS Trackside Laboratory. It also includes exclusive interview content with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, including Toto Wolff, James Allison and Jodi Hutton. We’re looking forward to bringing more of these experiences to fans.

Our partnership with ESL for the Snapdragon Pro Series, the world’s largest multi-genre mobile esports competition, has expanded globally to include more games across more regions including North America, Europe and Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

That brings me to the importance of building community. In 2020, we launched the Snapdragon Insiders program, which brings together tech enthusiast consumers from across the globe with the goal of turning them into fans of the Snapdragon brand. In just three years, this community has grown to more than 14 million members strong.¹ These engaged tech enthusiasts share their passion for all things Snapdragon across social platforms. I love that our members communicate, engage and create compelling programs and amazing content among the community — one of the best measures of success when building community is how much the community manages itself. When we look at the potential reach across our Insider program, where they can amplify our message, it’s an estimated 1.3 billion people.

Snapdragon Insiders are engaging and cross-pollinating with Manchester United fans and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team fans in person and in conversation on digital platforms. Moments at Old Trafford, Snapdragon Stadium, the F1 track, or just during everyday life are being ‘Shot on Snapdragon’ and shared among these communities. This creates a loop that connects the dots of our marketing initiatives and Snapdragon.   

The investment in the Snapdragon brand is big and different for a historically B2B company like Qualcomm, but the direct tie between brand value and business value is clear. As technology itself becomes more proliferated and less differentiated, it is brand values, ethos and advocacy that will make the difference in the marketplace. As Snapdragon continues to grow, stay tuned across our social channels for the front of shirt launch this summer as well as fun ways to engage with Snapdragon goodness (sonic included!).

References

1: This represents aggregate number of email sign-ups and followers on the following channels as of February 16, 2024: TikTok, Twitch, Discord, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, WeChat, JD.com and Tmall.