I was listening to Mike and Mike , ESPN’s morning radio show on my way in this morning and their conversation inspired this post.
Over the weekend, technology consulting firm, Accenture, dropped Tiger Woods as a spokesman. Accenture released a statement in which they, “”determined that [Woods] is no longer the right representative for its advertising.” Most of the Accenture advertising appeared in airports or in print. A lot of you may be asking yourself, who is Accenture? Well, given their smart PR move, now you know.
Now I am not giving kudos to Accenture for dropping Tiger Woods, rather, the way in which they dropped him. Accenture could have hidden this story, just removed the ads and said nothing. No one would have really noticed or said anything about it. But they didn’t. Accenture realized that being open and honest with the public typically results in a stronger brand image. And they didn’t just send out a release, they put it on their home page! Now that the dust (glass from the SUV’s windshield) has settled, Accenture did what they felt what was right for their brand.
When I talk to clients about social media, I always stress the biggest rule, which is being honest. Tell the truth, always. Mark Twain once said, “”If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” The same is true for social media and even more true as a general public relations principle. Looks like Accenture understands some of the modern day rules when it comes to marketing and public relations. Whether you agree with Accenture’s choice to drop Woods or not is not the point. Here’s a hat tip and a strong golf clap to Accenture for being truthful and owning a potentially damaging situation.
As an interesting side note, in distancing themselves from Tiger Woods, Accenture actually received some help from Woods himself. You see, on Friday, at about 5:30 Eastern Standard Time, Woods announced he was talking a leave from golf indefinitely. You want to talk about burying a news story? Announce something after 5 p.m EST on a Friday before a busy sports weekend and expect people to talk about it less.
Author: Josh Fleming
www.lessingflynn.com
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I am sick of Tiger Woods! But, thanks for posting this because it does illustrate a good way to get out from under Tiger (da..dum.dum…dum).
Accenture is smelling like a rose compared to Gillette. If I were them I'd just slash my throat. http://tinyurl.com/yepaanv
Josh, You are right. I hold companies in high regard that are open about their decisions and what Accenture did in this "tough to be in" position sounds like it was the right thing to do. Telling the truth always pays off.
Hey Claire, what's worse, Tiger Woods and Gillette or the "Dude, You're Getting a Dell" spokesperson fiasco?
Don't slash your throat, Claire, this is a family program. : )
Oh this is far worse than Steven the Dell Dude.
Josh, In light of this post, I came across this article also that talked about the advertisers who are debating what to do with their ties to Tiger. Good read.
http://www.geekmba360.com/?p=937
How can they do this?
Don't they know this man can hit a ball and make it land in a little hole? He is important to our culture!!!!
A role model!
My gawd the humanity of it all.
What's next for our poor media-shows about people who want to become singing stars? Putting people on an island and making them survive. Shows about people going on diets?
Ahhh Newton Minnow-a prophet waaayyyy ahead of his time. Except the vast wasteland? It's US! Not just TV – us.
I would think any company that uses a real person as a "spokesperson" would have had the forward sight to plan for just this type of situation, a great spokesperson gone bad. Humans are all fallible and hopefully this was figured in to the equation. However, as the old saying goes, "bad press is better than no press at all", so maybe companies secretly hope something like this happens to help boost their brand. Could you imagine if Subway's Jared was found out to be a porn star? It would give a whole new meaning to the "$5 Footlong" and Subway's sales would skyrocket!
I don't know if it was honesty that made Accenture send out that press release. It was just cold calculations, in my opinon.
See: http://accentureischeatingonitsclients.blogspot.c...
for more discussion on their honesty.