Scarlett Johansson gazes worshipfully into the dual¹ lenses of asandblasted-metal Huawei P9 smartphone as the Hollywood star shares a selfieproduct placement moment.

斯嘉丽•约翰逊(ScarlettJohansson)一脸爱慕地凝视着金属机身经过喷砂工艺处理的华为P9智能手机的双镜头。这位好莱坞明星为该产品拍了一则广告。

The advertisement, released this month by the Chinese telecoms equipmentgroup, was the opening salvo in a barrage² of publicity³ planned for the P9 asHuawei accelerates efforts to promote itself as a premium⁴ smartphone consumerbrand.

本月由这家中国电信设备制造集团投放的广告为P9的一系列推广活动拉开了帷幕。华为把自己定位为高端智能手机消费品牌进行大力宣传。

Already number three in world smartphone sales, the privately⁵ heldcompany has been making bold pronouncements that it will unseat Apple andSamsung Electronics atop the global rankings in five years.

按智能手机销量计算，这家私人公司如今已经在全球排名第三。华为已大胆放言，要在5年内超越苹果(Apple)和三星电子(Samsung Electronics)，做到全球第一。

Huawei, better known for cables, routers and switches than consumerdevices, only began making cheaper phones for the masses in 2003, under thebrands of its telecoms carrier clients including PCCW, Vodafone and Emobile.

与消费设备相比，华为更为知名的是电缆、路由器和交换机。它在2003年才开始制造较为廉价的大众手机，为其电信运营商客户包括电讯盈科(PCCW)、沃达丰(Vodafone)和Emobile等贴牌制造手机。

It began life as a manufacturer of phone switches in 1987 and has growninto a sprawling⁶ company that employs 170,000 employees and sells about a thirdof the world’s telecoms equipment.

华为1987年刚成立时是一家电话交换机制造商，后来逐步发展为一家业务广泛的公司，雇佣了17万名员工，电信设备销量大约占到全球的三分之一。

But Huawei wants to be known for more than just gear, says Glory Cheung,chief marketing⁷ officer. The company is confident that the technical quality ofits phones can rival that of the market leaders but feels it lacks a brand.That is what inspired its expensive campaigns such as the one that features MsJohansson, as well as actor Henry Cavill, model Karlie Kloss and footballerLionel Messi.

但华为消费者业务全球首席营销官张晓云(Glory Cheung)表示，华为希望不仅仅因设备本身而为人所知。华为相信，其手机的技术质量可以媲美市场领军者，但感觉缺乏品牌知名度。为此该公司斥巨资开展广告宣传活动，比如聘请约翰逊以及演员亨利•卡维尔(Henry Cavill)、模特卡莉•克劳斯(Karlie Kloss)和足球明星莱昂内尔•梅西(Lionel Messi)代言。

The company is also working with other brands. High-end camera companyLeica endorsed⁸ the P9 camera, one of the company’s smartwatches isencrusted with Swarovski crystal and Harman Kardon audio is used for Huawei’s tabletdevice.

华为还与其他品牌合作。P9配备了高端相机公司徕卡(Leicas)的摄像头，华为的一款智能手表镶嵌了施华洛世奇(Swarovski)的宝石，华为的平板设备采用了哈曼卡顿(Harman Kardon)音效。

“Building a premium brand for us is more than just money; it’s aboutchanging our own self-image, about building a whole new visual expression ofHuawei,”says Ms Cheung.

张晓云表示：“对我们来说，打造高端品牌不仅仅为了赚钱；它还与我们自己的自我形象有关，与打造华为全新的视觉表达有关。”

“The difference is that now, we have decided⁹ to build a brand,instead of just doing some campaigns,”she says.

她说：“不同之处在于，现在我们决定打造一个品牌，而不是只做一些广告宣传。”

The campaign has drawn¹⁰ mixed reviews. “I’m not against using paidambassadors with discretion¹¹, but when you’ve got a whole boatload of DiCaprios— I think they’ll get awareness¹², but I also think top-level customers are waypast that,” says Nick Arnold, Apple’s former head ofmarketing for China and Asia, now an independent strategy adviser¹³. “They’ll bethinking: ‘Is Scarlett Johansson really going to choose Huawei unless she ispaid to? I doubt it.’

外界对华为的广告宣传活动看法不一。独立的战略顾问、苹果公司原中国及亚洲营销负责人尼克•阿诺德(Nick Arnold)表示：“我不反对酌情聘请代言人，但当你有了一系列迪卡普里奥(Dicaprio)的广告的时候——我认为他们会因此知道你，但我也认为顶级消费者会想得更多。他们会想：‘如果没有报酬的话，斯嘉丽•约翰逊真的会选择华为吗？我怀疑这一点。’”

“A lot of companies use celebrities¹⁴ in place of having a sound andrelevant brand idea.”

“许多公司使用名人，而不是拥有一个健全和接地气的品牌理念。”

Fang¹⁵ Xingdong, founder¹⁶ of Beijing-based think-tank China Labs, says thecampaign ultimately doesn’t matter: “They will get attention, which is important. But what really mattersis they have a phone that is competitive.”

北京智库互联网实验室(ChinaLabs)创始人方兴东表示，广告活动从根本上来说并不重要：“他们将获得关注，这很重要。但真正重要的是拥有一款具有竞争力的手机。”

Yet whatever the campaign’s merits, Huawei’s phones have done well.Huawei is running neck and neck with upstart rival Xiaomi in their home market,and trails only Apple and Samsung worldwide. Its smartphone sales rose 44 percent last year to 108m units, making Huawei the first Chinese company to shipmore than 100m in a year.

然而，无论广告作用怎样，华为的手机卖得不错。华为在国内市场的销量与新秀小米(Xiaomiin)匹敌，在全球仅次于苹果和三星。去年华为智能手机销量增长44%，至1.08亿部，这让华为成为首家年出货量超过1亿部的中国公司。

The rapid progress has caught even the company’s own executives bysurprise. Earlier this year Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer devicesdivision, faced incredulity when he predicted that its phones would be numbertwo in the world in two to three years and number one within four or five.

这种发展之快甚至让华为自己的高管都感到意外。今年早些时候，当华为消费者业务CEO余承东(Richard Yu)预计华为手机销量将在两到三年里在全球排名第二、在四到五年里全球排名第一的时候，外界表示怀疑。

When asked about Mr Yu’s prognostication at Huawei’s annual analystsummit last week, even Eric Xu, Huawei’s chief executive officer, said Mr Yumust have been misquoted and could only have been talking about the Chinamarket (the Financial Times checked; he was not misquoted).

在最近华为年度分析师大会上被问及余承东所说的目标时，即便是华为轮值CEO徐直军(Eric Xu)也表示，余承东的话肯定被引用错了，他可能只是指中国市场（英国《金融时报》查证，余承东的话没有引用错）。