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Accenture - Business to Business

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2013, Click to Enter The 2014 Steve Awards for Women in Business

Company: Accenture, Chicago, IL USA
Entry Submitted By: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Company Description: Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 266,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.
Nomination Category: Communications & Marketing Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing - Business to Business

Nomination Title: Accenture's Business to Business Communications/PR Campaign

In up to 525 words, tell the judges about the nominated campaign: its genesis, development, planning, commission, and performance to date:

Accenture’s focus for the next chapter in its brand history is to move beyond awareness – to drive buyer consideration. Clients know Accenture and tell us we’re different. However, they have limited knowledge of the full breadth and depth of our services and solutions. Untapped needs are significant and Accenture has a tremendous opportunity to grow share of wallet. Specific goals included:

GOAL 1: Increase target familiarity with Accenture’s range of capabilities while maintaining advertising awareness levels.

GOAL 2: Increase target engagement with case studies and key growth area content while driving overall website views.

GOAL 3: Generate employee enthusiasm for the advertising and help push Accenture engagement metrics into the top-tier of “Best Employers.”

Results

The campaign was extensively tested among C-Suite executives (N=226) and was successful at conveying “new news” about Accenture’s range of capabilities; offered more tangible, “real world” results; and made them want to learn more:

• “Shows their bench strengths all the way from consulting to outsourcing, allowing you to partner with them to transform your business model and capitalize on their experience to better position your company.

The new campaign also successfully met the objective of highlighting high-demand hot topics like Mobility and Analytics:

• “Shows the core features of what they bring to the table. Cloud, mobility and analytics seemed new, I don’t remember them targeting things like this before.”

Finally, the new advertising was strongly preferred versus the previous effort, and the response was overwhelmingly in favor of the new platform (85% preferred new campaign).

Anchoring its messaging around the success of its clients and tailoring content to highly relevant business challenges, the campaign offered proof of results in hard-hitting headlines, engaging the C-Suite audience and encouraging them to dig deeper on Accenture.com. Accenture infused bold colors and visuals with clever headlines and a tone that reinforces the collaborative values of the brand.

At launch, Accenture needed a highly focused media strategy, capitalizing on C-Suite executives 15+ business trips a year, leveraging airports with high-impact environments at New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare and Miami International as well as transit takeovers and taxis in markets like New York and Washington, DC. Accenture also engaged its on-the-go audience by using targeted media partners across online and iPad, ensuring high message frequency and the largest impact with limited dollars. Finally, they leveraged social media channels across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Target audience research confirmed:

GOAL 1: INCREASE TARGET FAMILIARITY WITH ACCENTURE’S RANGE OF CAPABILITIES WHILE MAINTAINING OVERALL ADVERTISING AWARENESS LEVELS.
“…The ads from today draw you in and make you want to understand more...”

GOAL 2: GENERATE DEEPER TARGET ENGAGEMENT WITH CASE STUDIES AND KEY GROWTH AREA CONTENT WHILE INCREASING OVERALL WEBSITE VIEWS.
The Strategy delivered over 83,000,000 impressions and nearly 100,000 visitors to accenture.com. Website engagements exceeded goal by 80%. Page views of campaign-related content grew 89%, beating the 50% goal.

GOAL 3: GENERATE EMPLOYEE ENTHUSIASM FOR THE NEW CAMPAIGN AND HELP PUSH ACCENTURE ENGAGEMENT METRICS INTO THE TOP-TIER OF “BEST EMPLOYERS”.
Following the launch, 64% of US employees were “engaged”, exceeding AonHewitt’s 60% benchmark for “best employers”. Over 69,000 employees attended the launch webcast globally.

Provide a brief biography of the person or persons who lead the team that created and carried out the nominated communications campaign (up to 125 words):

As Senior Managing Director, Global Image for Accenture, a $27.9 billion global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, Teresa Poggenpohl is responsible for shaping the company’s brand and positioning in the marketplace. Teresa has received wide recognition for her achievements including: “Who’s Who in B-to-B” 2011 and 2009, “Best Marketer” of 2012, 2011, 2008 and 2007 by B-to-B magazine. Teresa holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois-Champaign. Teresa serves on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Business Marketing Association and the Chicago Children’s Museum.