On January 20, Changxing, Zhejiang, the "Huawei Mobile Phone Cup" China Go League came to an end.
This year's League A can be said to have ups and downs: the defending champions missed the final four, the playoff reversal drama was frequently staged, and the relegation war was fiercely contested.
From quantitative change to qualitative change
Lin Jianchao, chairman of the China Weiqi Association, spoke specifically about Huawei's support for Chinese Go in his speech at the closing ceremony, not only in terms of funds, but also in terms of various equipment conditions, but more importantly, the injection of excellent spirit.
As Lin Jianchao said, the Chinese Go League has concentrated the largest number of outstanding players in the world, the highest level, the largest scale, and the longest cycle, just like the NBA in the basketball field and the Champions League in the world football field, with the joint participation of the world's outstanding chess players, the Huawei Mobile Phone Cup China Go League has become a world-class top event.
More importantly, from 2018 to 2021, Huawei's cooperation with the Weijia League has also made the promotion of Weiqi culture change from quantitative to qualitative.
This qualitative change is a qualitative change in scale. Lan Rong, director of Huawei's Zhejiang Terminal Business Department, said that from the run-in exploration of "offline Go activities" in 2018, to the introduction of artificial intelligence "AI games" in 2019, to the joint launch of the "Go Fun Challenge" in 2020, and the continued holding of the "Huawei Go Challenge" in 2021, the cooperation between Huawei and Weijia has continued to deepen. The figures can be explained: in 2021, the "Huawei Go Challenge" attracted nearly 200,000 people to participate, and the number of matches exceeded 15 million times, which was more than 10 times larger than in 2020.
This qualitative change is the qualitative change of experience. Huawei uses technology to promote Go culture, bringing a new experience to Go enthusiasts. I remember that in 2018, I once went to the Huawei Smart Life Hall to visit "AI Smart Chess", with the help of Huawei's mobile phone's powerful AI computing power, the Go Game App can be played by the mobile phone's local AI-driven robotic arm without networking. After playing against this system, Nie Weiping and this system once evaluated it as reaching the amateur four-stage level, which is very interesting.
In 2021, Huawei will bring the game of Go into the Hongmeng era of all-scene smart life. For example, using Huawei MatePad to play scores, a touch is transmitted to the wisdom screen to watch the game; chess fans can also cross-scene multi-device circulation to watch the game, etc., Huawei Hongmeng empowerment of "technology Go", attracted the attention of a large number of Go fans.
This qualitative change is also the qualitative change of the scene. In the past four years, Huawei has expanded the promotion of Go culture to online and offline scenes. For example, in 2021, the "Huawei Go Challenge" consists of the "Ladder Qualifying Tournament" of the online Yike Go platform + 12 "Big Coffee Attack Tournaments" held by Huawei flagship stores and experience stores in 12 cities offline, and it is this ubiquitous Go promotion scene that allows more Go lovers, especially young Go groups, to understand Go, participate in Go, and like Go.
Huawei's cooperation with Wei Jia has changed from quantitative to qualitative changes, which is how it has been refined.
Span, temperature and depth
In the close cooperation between Huawei and Weijia and Huawei and Weiqi culture, what impressed me the most was the "three degrees": span, temperature and depth.
The span is that Huawei has crossed the boundary between technology and culture, and used technology to revitalize Go culture. Go is the essence of the country and a classic traditional culture, but like other traditional cultures, it also faces the problem of how to spread the brand in the new era and change the high and low. Huawei's addition will turn the spread of the Go brand into interaction with users, coupled with the blessing of science and technology, so that the ancient culture of Go is full of vitality and rejuvenation, so that more users can understand Go and fall in love with Go.
As mentioned above, whether it is AI wisdom chess or full-scene wisdom Go under the blessing of Hongmeng, this is the case. Go, no longer boring, but full of fun, is an important basis for the spread of Go culture.
Temperature is Huawei's social responsibility and brand temperature to promote Go culture. In his speech, Lan Rong repeatedly mentioned a word: "initial heart". Yes, Huawei's cooperation with The Weijia League is not only the cross-border marketing of corporate brands and event activities, but also the original intention of promoting Go culture from the beginning.
In particular, Huawei has contributed its own strength to the popularization of Go among young people, and I once participated in the "National Go Team National Tour" activity in the Huawei Smart Life Hall, and I was very impressed. In the activities, The Go teenagers communicated with the Go masters at zero distance and exchanged chess skills, which greatly enhanced the youngsters' interest and love for Go.
Depth is the brand power that Huawei has gained in helping to promote Go culture. Marketing guru Philip Kotler once said: "To create effective brand equity, you must reach the top of the brand pyramid." "In the brand resonance pyramid model, the top module is to establish a brand relationship, that is, the brand should inspire consumers to resonate, so that consumers and brands have a deep relationship."
In the process of promoting the popularization of Go culture, Huawei has opened up opportunities for in-depth exchanges between brands and users by using Go culture as a medium. In this process, not only allow users to deeply experience Huawei's products and services, but also resonate emotionally and spiritually. As a result, the relationship between Huawei and users continues to deepen, and the Go culture has become a key for Huawei to enhance its brand power, especially to knock on the door of high-end brands.
Therefore, the four years of Huawei + Weijia accompany each other reflect the span of technology and cultural integration, the temperature of promotion and popularization of Go culture, and the depth of Huawei's interaction with users.
Postscript: A new realm of brand upgrading
In the past four years, Huawei, Weijia and Weiqi culture have staged a good story of mutual achievement, and also showed us a new realm of brand upgrading.
First, there must be spiritual communication. The fit between the realm of Go and the spirit of Huawei is not only the integration of technology and art, but also the integration of wisdom and culture. The cooperation between the two influences and achieves each other, allowing the world to see the power of China's innovative technology and at the same time indulging in the mystery and charm of oriental culture, the creation of Go people and Huawei people, which embodies the wisdom and ingenuity of Chinese.
Secondly, it is to be in harmony with each other. In the past four years, Huawei has tried every means to innovate in promoting Go culture. There are innovations in science and technology, innovation in scenes, and innovations in the form of activities. From the "National Go Team National Tour" in 2019, to the "Go Fun Challenge" in 2020, and then to the "Huawei Go Challenge" in 2021. Even in 2020 and 2021, when the epidemic was in place, Huawei overcame many difficulties to continue to hold events and made greater breakthroughs in the scale and influence of participation.
In this, it is not forgetting the original intention. The relationship between Huawei and the Weijia League is not a simple sponsorship relationship, but a deep cooperation, and both sides are working together to promote The culture of Go. And Huawei's original intention is also to practice its words, to give full play to its advantages in science and technology and innovation, to use its ability to make products in the promotion of Go culture, and to evolve every year, and finally from quantitative change to qualitative change, so that Go culture is revitalized.
Lin Jianchao once explained the real value of Go in a lecture in the world's unprecedented changes in the past century: First, cultural self-confidence, Go is one of the few Chinese cultural products that can form a spiritual advantage over Westerners, and is a classic content and representative project of Chinese culture; second, the game wins, the core concept of Go is the game, which is full of courage and deep wisdom; the third is to be spiritually strong, and the fundamental purpose of Go is to make the nation spiritually strong and make spiritual preparations for the Chinese nation to go to the world.
I think this is also the reason why Huawei and Go culture come together, the cooperation between the two sides, and even more and more users who participate in the Weiqi culture, are to achieve cultural integration and spiritual resonance in the interaction.
"Facing the future, Huawei will continue to strengthen cooperation with the Chinese Go League A, use more innovative smart all-scenario products and better quality and more colorful activities to bring better participation experiences to the majority of Go fans, and continue to help promote and develop Weiqi culture." Lan Rong said this in his speech.
Looking forward to the future, it can be expected that Huawei's cooperation with Weijia will open up greater imagination space, and such a future is worth looking forward to.