Dick Sinreich
Senior Partner at Y&R New York
New York, United States
TitleMoving Sidewalk
Agency
Campaign I Am Your Idea - Accenture
Advertiser Accenture
Brand Accenture
PostedAugust 2004
Business Sector Accounting & Audit Companies, Organiz. Consultants
Story SUMMARY

With the consulting category experiencing slowed growth due to the economic climate, the name of the game in this business has been to steal share from competitors. With many companies offering similar services, differentiation is the key to gaining awareness and consideration, the first step in the buying process. With the "I Am Your Idea" campaign, Accenture disrupted the consulting category by embracing the importance of clients' ideas in delivering innovation. Despite being vastly outspent by its largest competitor, Accenture achieved a 34% increase in projected bookings.
Philosophy CREATIVE STRATEGY

Accenture wanted to capture attention with a simple campaign idea: “Accenture helps turn your ideas into reality”.


The strategy essentially ties into the insight that clients can have ideas and visions as well as consultants and Accenture is the company that will collaborate with them to make great ideas happen. It offsets the target group’s negative perceptions of consultants as someone who will force-feed their own ideas to clients and in the process of doing so can be perceived as arrogant and unable to deliver.


OTHER COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAMMES

- Global events program.

- 49 case studies demonstrating how Accenture helped deliver their client’s ideas.

- Accenture’s corporate web site reinforced the advertising through client case studies and through leadership work.

- An extensive internal communications campaign featuring employee webcasts, newsletters and training sessions motivated Accenture’s 75,000 partners and employees to live the new brand positioning.


MEDIA

- Broadcast

- Print

- Out-of-Home


MARKETS

Pan Euro Media: CNN, CNBC Europe, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Financial Times, BBC World, European editions of Business Week, Forbes, Fortune and The Economist.


TOTAL MARKETING EXPENDITURE

Between €10 and €20 million.


MEDIA STRATEGY

Accenture’s proprietary research indicated that the elusive C-Suite target utilizes press as their primary source for business information. In addition, over half of Accenture’s target audience in Europe identifies magazines and newspapers as the medium where they recognize the Accenture brand the most. Based on this data, a significant portion of the media budget was allocated to print. Smaller percentages were then allocated to airport to reach the target while travelling, and to broadcast in order to generate immediate awareness of the Accenture campaign. The print and airport activity were scheduled across the entire fiscal year while the television activity was focused during the initial launch of the campaign only.
Problem CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

- Break through the clutter and get noticed, despite being outspent 8:1 on a global basis by the category leader.

- Get Accenture on the target group’s consideration list when they are thinking of companies to hire for large scale consulting engagements.

- Achieve $12 billion in projected bookings for the fiscal year 2003.


TARGET AUDIENCE

The target is the crème de la crème of the corporate world. Those who are essentially responsible for hiring consultants typically reside in the upper most levels of large organizations, the so called “C-Suite” – the CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO and strategic heads of various divisions in the corporate structure.


CAMPAIGN PERIOD

February 2002 to August 2003.
Result • Despite being outspent substantially by its key competitor, Accenture managed to break through with a focused campaign coupled with a targeted media plan, increasing its global unaided brand awareness from 29% to 34%.

(Source: Accenture Published Information)

• The share of the target group considering Accenture for their next consulting engagement was tripled.

(Source:Global Awareness Tracking Study, December 2002)

• During the time the campaign ran, Accenture achieved $ 16,1 billion in bookings, a 34% increase compared to projected figures.

(Source: Accenture Published Information)
Media Type Magazine
Market United States, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Spain
Advertising Manager
Director of Advertising
Advertising Manager
Director of Market Research
Advertising Manager
Advertising Manager
Advertising Specialist
Managing Partner
Senior Partner
Partner
Senior Partner

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