While traveling to speaking engagements and client events around the country, I have grown quite accustomed to seeing Tiger Woods advertisements in airports. Without question, the most visible ad campaigns featuring the untamed-Tiger were Accenture’s–one of the world’s largest accounting firms.
Because they target business travelers, Accenture has advertisements in every major airport in America. They are E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. Moreover, Accenture had seamlessly combined and communicated a message of precision and performance. As an accounting firm, that is exactly what they wanted you to think about when you think Accenture. To catapult their target message to masses, they aligned with brand Tiger–a brand that was carefully crafted to represent not only precision and performance, but also perfection. Essentially, the accounting firm co-branded their “performance†brand with the Tiger “perfection†brand to create a message of “perfect performance.â€Â As a branding connoisseur, I always felt it was an overwhelmingly successful campaign–at least while it lasted.
In all likelihood, advertising and endorsements will never be the same. Tiger (who recently announced that he will return to golf to play in the Masters on April 8) was the epitome of the perfect pitchman, and I do mean perfect. Every sports and PR agency wanted Tiger as a client, but there is always risk involved with any endorsement or brand association. Of all the companies touched by Tiger, Accenture invested the most and therefore exposed themselves to the greatest risk of loss.  In this case, by aligning exclusively and so aggressively with Tiger, Accenture absorbed a dangerous amount of risk in allowing one person to possess a disproportionate degree of brand influence. In hindsight, it was a pretty obvious mistake; one that is causing marketing teams around the country to reevaluate how they brand moving forward. Presumably, Accenture felt much like the unsuspecting and misled investors who entrusted their financial future into the hands of Bernard Madoff. No individual should have that much power or influence over your destiny.
I was certainly not surprised that Accenture dropped Tiger. What I did not expect was the way in which they reinvented themselves with a brilliant, new and clever advertising campaign; nor did I think they would do it so quickly.
Accenture (the rebranded reincarnation of the fallen mega-accounting firm, Arthur Andersen) is no stranger to bad publicity and accusations of bad character. They have been there, done that. I think the transition to becoming what we know today as Accenture taught them the importance of timely crisis management and brand recovery.
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Accenture may have gotten lost in the “woods,†but they somehow ended up in the wild. In their new campaign, Accenture replaced their wounded Tiger with images of elephants, fish, lizards and frogs–oh my! As I stood at the airport looking at an elephant surfing and some leaping frogs, I was taken aback. The job of the most in-demand, iconic global athlete on the plant was outsourced. Tiger was replaced with a cheaper, risk-adverse form of labor–all hired from the local zoo.
Accenture’s decision is not that different from what most major corporations are doing to lower their overhead and the risk associated with the traditional American workforce–i.e.
made in China and serviced in India. Think about it. Accenture was paying Tiger Woods millions per year for the right to use his image in advertising. I doubt the surfing Elephant or the leaping frog received a signing bonus in this case (I could not reach either for comment to confirm for sure).I will refrain from rehashing the mistakes, missteps, and mishaps of Tiger Woods for now. I will reserve that for a future discussion about the plethora of ills plaguing today’s athletes. However, the timely transition made by Accenture shows how important it is to have a carefully crafted crisis management plan in place. It is like a fire extinguisher. You do not need it until you need it, but when you need it, you really need it.
Given the tight jobs market, employers are constantly looking for ways to lower expenditures and risk. To prevent your brand from being outsourced, too, here are some personal career lessons we can all learn from Accenture on how to rebuild a bruised brand.
Focus on Your Strengths. When your brand has taken a bad beating, think carefully about your next step. The unique dynamic here is that Accenture did not actually do anything wrong (this time), which was a huge plus. Therefore, the transitional strategy needed to focus on their strengths as a leading performance-driven firm, and how to channel that specific message via a new medium. Likewise, your first step should be to specifically define your brand goals and objectives, and then ensure that message reflects and highlights your strengths.
Reduce Your Risk.
If you mess up once, make sure you do not mess up twice. The break-up with Tiger was like a really bad divorce. Accenture was not going to get “married†again by entering another bet-the-company type of relationship with a(continued on next page)
celebrity or athlete. There is colossal risk involved in aligning your brand with a single spokesperson, or entrusting your career or business with one individual for that matter. For that reason, I have very few exclusive contracts with any of my vendors.
In its new campaign, Accenture aptly chose a completely new and diverse array of “pitchmen†to represent its brand moving forward. Animals are pretty much risk-adverse. If you recall, Aflac uses ducks, Taco Bell used a Chihuahua, Geico uses reptiles, Energizer uses a pink bunny, and (my favorite) Chick-fil-a uses cows. Animals do not misspeak. They do not embarrass. They do not do anything they are not designed to do. You know what you are going to get, which speaks to reliability. Animals also allow the company to have complete control over the messaging. In this instance, Accenture created animal-inspired imagery that represents the essence of high performance. They not only lowered their risk, they now have the ability to raise their profile with campaigns that are entertaining, inspiring, and thought-provoking. So, while the concept of using animals in brand messaging is not new, I do think Accenture’s new direction will yield rewards greater than what they have experienced in the past with Tiger. You, too, should think of refined strategies that will take you in a new, improved, and less risky career direction.
Be Creative. Remember that if everyone is thinking alike then someone is not thinking. Being creative and thinking outside of the box are critical to rebranding and brand survival. The best part of falling is that everyone is watching to see exactly how you plan to get back up. It is a perfect opportunity to take a captive audience and captivate them with your uniqueness and the value you bring to the marketplace. If everyone is watching you, you might as well give them a good show.
We all make mistakes, but we can rebound. For additional insight on how to recover from any type of set-back, sign-up for my free ME Unlimited® e-Newsletter featuring daily “Motivate ME†affirmations and reinvention advice at www.marshawnevans.com, and you can follow me on Twitter for quick tips.
Now it is your turn. Do you think Accenture made the right move in dropping Tiger Woods? Do you think Tiger will ever get his endorsements back? What do you think about Accenture’s new advertising campaign? I look forward to hearing from you.
Reinvention Strategistâ„¢ Marshawn Evans is a former Miss America beauty queen turned Donald Trump Apprentice, turned Georgetown University trained sports & entertainment lawyer who equips the motivated to live without limits. She is Founder of ME Unlimited, a management consulting and performance strategy firm, and author of the bestselling book, SKIRTS in the Boardroom: A Woman’s Survival Guide to Success in Business & Life. Subscribe to her FREE empowerment e-newsletter at www.marshawnevans.com. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.