Tiger Gets New Stripes: Accenture Launches New Global Advertising and Marketing Campaign Based on Three-Year 'High Performance Business' Research

For three years, Woods has been the embodiment of high performancein Accenture's global integrated marketing campaign. In one respect,Accenture's new campaign has a familiar look: Tiger doing what he doesbest out on the golf course. But it quickly becomes evident that thereis something more to the campaign, in both appearance and content.

Accenture's new campaign builds on the Tiger Woods phenomenon byspelling out the ingredients for becoming a high-performance business.It captures the key findings of that research in a variety of print,television, online and airport poster ads with the tagline: "We knowwhat it takes to be a Tiger."

The ads translate Woods' actions on the golf course into thetraits shared by "high-performance businesses" - from foresight andpreparation to having the flexibility to adjust and adapt whencircumstances require it. High performers also focus on "relentlessconsistency" and take the leap from "focusing on outperforming thecompetition to outperforming themselves."

The campaign is based on a three-year Accenture research programthat analyzed 6,000 companies worldwide and identified what it takesto be a high-performing organization -- one that out-performs peersacross business and economic cycles, often across generations ofleadership, and as measured by widely accepted financial metrics. Ofthe 6,000 companies surveyed, only 500 met the criteria for highperformers. A recent Harvard Business Review survey recognizedAccenture's research program as one of the 10 most notable initiativesin the field during the past quarter century.

"From the outset, we were determined that our High PerformanceBusiness strategy would be based on substantive research and knowledgethat would enable us to frame the dialogue with our clients in newways and enable us to share insights to help them drive higherperformance," said James E. Murphy, Accenture's chief marketing &communications officer. "Accenture now holds a proprietary body ofknowledge about high performance that is unmatched in our industry.The new campaign showcases our compelling and differentiatedknowledge, experience and capabilities, directly supporting ourhigh-performance position and strategy."

The new campaign launches in 23 countries and includes anincreased investment in interactive activities. The campaign kicks offthe week of Sept. 25 with television spots running during theAccenture-sponsored World Golf Championships - American ExpressChampionship in which Tiger Woods is scheduled to compete. The adswill also appear on CNN, Fox TV, ABC TV, ESPN and the Golf Channelduring the course of the campaign. The print campaign begins the weekof Sept. 25 in the United States and will also run in France, Germany,Italy, Spain, Japan, China and the United Kingdom. Print ads arescheduled to appear in top business and news publications includingthe Financial Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Le Figaro, Il Sole 24Ore, Expansion, and Nikkei Business, plus global editions of The WallStreet Journal and The Economist.

Launched three years ago, Accenture's High Performance Businesscampaign featuring Tiger Woods has achieved tremendous success. It hasbeen the company's most successful global integrated marketingcampaign in its nearly 20 years of creating award-winning campaigns. Arecent survey of senior executives found that Accenture's brandidentity has increased steadily and surpassed those of its competitorssince Accenture launched its High Performance Delivered positioningand the "Go on. Be a Tiger" campaign. Accenture's relationship withTiger Woods is his first and only business-to-business endorsement.

"Tiger continues to be the ideal representative for our HighPerformance Business strategy," Murphy said. "The world associatesTiger with high performance. He embodies the relentless pursuit ofperfection, and we are delighted to continue our relationship withhim."

The new print advertising campaign preserves the proven appeal ofTiger Woods with bold images of the golf icon in action as the visualfoundation (much like the former print advertisements). But the newcampaign incorporates a new visual element--a mnemonic device thatcharts the insights and knowledge that Accenture has identifiedthrough its ground-breaking research into 6,000 companies about whatit takes to be a high-performance business.

Over each Tiger Woods image is a hand-drawn white line broken intosegments (much like sportscasters use during sports coverage)accompanied by captions that include percentages breaking down theessential ingredients of a particular high-performance behavior suchas having "hindsight," or being able to plan for and seizeopportunities, to "stick-to-iveness," where high performance isachieved not through luck but by hard work and diligence.

As part of the campaign, Accenture will add new interactive toolsto its website, accenture.com, and expand traditional efforts indirect marketing, conferences and thought leadership events. Forexample, the ads will direct the audience to a High PerformanceBusiness section on the site where the campaign continues with morein-depth educational and interactive components. The section alsoincludes a new element in addition to the standard content that is aflash presentation explaining the research, its findings and how itwas conducted.

In addition, simultaneous to the campaign launch, the September2006 issue of Outlook, Accenture's journal of high-performancebusiness, features the results of the company's High PerformanceBusiness research program, including background on the initiative,details on its proprietary methodology, along with the key findingsthat clearly define the drivers of superior performance.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology servicesand outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenturecollaborates with its clients to help them become high-performancebusinesses and governments. With deep industry and business processexpertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenturecan mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clientsimprove their performance. With more than 133,000 people in 48countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion forthe fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005. Its home page iswww.accenture.com.

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