Andersen Consulting Launches New $44 Million Advertising Campaign; Global Effort Will Drive Firm's New Brand Strategy And Enhance Its Leadership Positioning.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 5, 1998--Andersen Consulting today launches a $44 million global advertising campaign that powerfully communicates the new brand positioning and corporate identity introduced by the firm this spring. It also amplifies and extends the aggressive marketing approach it introduced to the management consulting category a decade ago.

The campaign's linchpin is a new 30-second television commercial entitled "Constellations," a live-action and computer-animated spot that debuts today in the United States and on CNN and CNBC. Companion print ads break today in The Wall Street Journal and in the upcoming editions of Time, Forbes, The Economist and Harvard Business Review. Illuminated airport posters go up today in New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, St. Louis, Cleveland, Newark, Minneapolis and San Jose. New ad executions will also appear on the Internet pages of CNN and The Wall Street Journal. In all, the campaign will be seen in 30 countries, beginning with its international debut on Thursday (October 15) in the United Kingdom and rolling out across Europe, Latin America and Japan later this month.

The new campaign was created by Young & Rubicam, the firm's long-time advertising agency, under the direction of James E. Murphy, Andersen Consulting's Global Managing Director of Marketing and Communications. Said Mr. Murphy: "As the management consulting category continues its rapid expansion, the value of strong brand names in our marketplace will continue to increase. Today, it is not enough to be simply known, you need to be clearly understood. Our brand marketing efforts are aimed at truly distinguishing Andersen Consulting in the market and this new campaign strongly underpins that effort."

The "Constellations" spot employs an imaginative and dramatic storyline. In a brilliant night sky, the constellations Sagittarius, Hercules and Taurus have come to life. The archer Sagittarius draws his bow and fires an arrow that trails a glittering rope of stars. The mythic Hercules catches the arrow and winds the rope around the neck of Taurus the bull. Taurus strains to pull the rope, which the viewer now sees has been wrapped around the moon.

The commercial's voice-over intones: "Every organization has many stars. But Andersen Consulting can help you integrate all your diverse talents. So that when you reach for the moon you might actually get it."

The commercial employs a live-action sequence shot in the mountains of Norway and cutting-edge computer imagery that relies on titanium explosions and cloud tank simulations to create an impression of atmosphere, clouds and gas.

The creation of the spot brought together some of the industry's top production talent. It was directed by Kevin Moloney, a British director who has created television advertising for such well-known international brands as Kodak, Duracell, Nike, BMW and Michelin. The commercial was edited at two leading London production houses, The Mill and Piper Productions. It also incorporates the firm's recently introduced aural signature, a unique musical branding device that in this instance is rendered by a 30-piece orchestra.

The campaign continues Andersen Consulting's 10-year record of ground-breaking advertising and brand development within the management consulting sector. In May, the firm unveiled marketing plans to aggressively position itself as the best choice for far-reaching change in a highly dynamic global marketplace and to promote its insights, practical know-how and integrated capabilities as a way of further differentiating its consulting offer. The plans included a new and more modern graphic identity and a $100 million brand marketing spend over the next year.

The firm's advertising efforts have been recognized with many industry awards, including: a Silver EFFIE this year; the Silver Prize in the corporate category as awarded by Japan's Ministry of Internal Trade in 1997; inclusion in Media & Marketing Europe's 1997 Top 10 global advertising campaigns; a Bronze Prize at the 1997 European Advertising Achievement Awards; a 1997 Business Week Award for Excellence in Corporate Advertising; and The Wall Street Journal's Top Scoring Advertising award in 1996.

Along with its status as the first management consulting firm to use mainstream advertising, Andersen Consulting has been a pioneer in the use of other brand-building initiatives. Last week, for instance, the firm kicked off its exclusive sponsorship of "Van Gogh's Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam," a blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Andersen Consulting is a $6.6 billion global management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients change to be more successful. The organization works with clients from a wide range of industries to link their people, processes and technologies to their strategies. Andersen Consulting has more than 59,000 people in 46 countries.

Its home page address is http://www.ac.com.