Accenture Campaign Breaks New Ground for Professional Services Firms "I am your idea - Use Me!"

Business Wire, Feb 20, 2002

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2002

Accenture today launched a new multidimensional global branding initiative and advertising campaign that highlights the company's ability to help clients quickly deliver innovation.

The campaign emphasizes the sense of urgency that senior executives must employ to turn ideas into actions that provide competitive advantage. It also heralds Accenture's respect for clients' ideas -- not an attribute that is typically associated with professional service firms. The program kicks off with four 30-second advertising spots on the ABC and ESPN networks' telecast of the Accenture Match Play Championship, Feb. 20-24. The Accenture Match Play Championship is one of golf's most televised events.

Enlisting an array of media and venues - including print, TV, airports, sponsorships and events - the "I am your idea" campaign builds on Accenture's corporate-wide strategy of "Innovation Delivered." Creative elements of the campaign convey not only the potential power of ideas but also their fragility. The campaign drives home the point that an idea that is not executed is gone forever and that Accenture's strength is in helping CEOs make ideas that get results happen. Creative treatments provide compelling examples of where ideas are born and who creates them. The ads also integrate a series of 20 case studies that showcase Accenture's ability to help clients bring ideas to life.

The tone and tenor of "I am your idea" builds on previous Accenture campaigns, maintaining the quirky playfulness of its past advertising. Last year's "Now it gets interesting" theme successfully introduced the Accenture brand and created awareness of the company and the full breadth of its capabilities. This campaign takes the Accenture brand to the next level by linking the ads to the company's Innovation Delivered strategy. "I am your idea" brings to the forefront Accenture's ability to act as a catalyst, collaborating with clients to accelerate innovation and obtain results. Graphics, text and voiceovers work together to give ideas a "voice" that speaks to the viewer and urges them to act.

"Whether the ideas are our clients' or our own, we believe it's not how many you have, but how many you make happen that counts," said James E. Murphy, global managing director of marketing and communications, Accenture. "Senior executives told us their biggest frustration is not a lack of ideas but their organizations' inability to execute them. This campaign is about Accenture respecting client ideas and being able to help senior management capitalize on them to make things happen."

One television ad, titled "Train," is representative of the campaign's creative concept. An executive riding in a high-speed train across the countryside is writing his ideas down on a luminous slip of paper. The voice of his idea speaks to him, reminding him of its great potential and the need to bring it to life. While on the train and in the station, he sees other business people around him carrying, reading and working on similar pieces of paper, which represent their ideas. His idea reminds him that there are many other ideas out there, so what makes his so different? His idea reassures him, "You're actually going to do something with me."

The advertising, created by Y&R New York, is part of a $70 million global brand positioning investment by Accenture that will run in 31 countries. "I am your idea" will be seen in leading business and news television programs, leading business newspapers and magazines and will also appear in airport posters and outdoor advertising. In addition to the Accenture Match Play Championship, the company will leverage sponsorship opportunities with institutions such as the Louvre, Spain's Info Forum and the British Film Institute. A webcast featuring various elements of the campaign will be broadcast Feb. 21 to Accenture's more than 75,000 employees worldwide.

In addition to the advertising campaign, the notion of Innovation Delivered is being integrated across Accenture's entire marketing mix, including internal and external communications, client events, sponsorships and thought leadership efforts globally. Accenture's home page, accenture.com, has been redesigned in both content and look to reinforce how Accenture delivers innovation, using client case studies and thought leadership work as evidence. Since its inception in 1989, the company has pioneered the use of integrated communications to reach employees, recruits and clients in the professional services area.

For more information on the campaign and to view the advertisements, visit the Advertising section of About Accenture on www.accenture.com

About Accenture

Accenture is the world's leading management and technology services organization. Through its network of businesses approach -- in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, affiliated companies and other capabilities - Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With more than 75,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.44 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2001. Its home page is www.accenture.com.