Annabel Pritchard, London 2012 sponsorship director at Deloitte, is helping to champion the brand above its competitors. Victoria Clarke reports
When I meet Annabel Pritchard, London 2012 sponsorship director at Deloitte, it’s hard to believe the relatively unassuming, demure marketer in front of me is responsible for marketing the world’s leading professional services brand (in terms of both revenue and number of employees) on one of the biggest stages in history – the 2012 Olympics. Somehow I’d imagined who ever took on this massive marketing feat might be as big and bold as the challenges involved. Not so. In fact Pritchard is the very antithesis of big and bold. Her appearance is understated chic, her remarks throughout the interview – not quite conservative – but articulate and controlled. Polished is how I’d describe Pritchard – and she’s certainly helping the Deloitte brand to shine.
Herculean ambition
Pritchard’s taken on numerous roles in her six and a half years with Deloitte. As the global professional services giant embarked on the lengthy process of bidding for London Olympic sponsorship back in 2007, Pritchard – in her then role as head of brand – was involved with pulling together all the branding to support the bid. After the bid was won, however, she reveals it quickly became apparent that the London 2012 activity was too big a job to try and incorporate within the rest of Deloitte’s branding activity, and it would need a dedicated leader and team all of its own. So the steely marketer volunteered herself for this “once in a lifetime” challenge – first accepting the position of head of 2012 sponsorship, before being promoted to sponsorship director. Perhaps the earlier comment about Pritchard seeming ‘un-bold’ was a premature assumption – after all, taking on the London Olympics is not a challenge for the faint hearted.
“London 2012 sets things out on a very public stage. We’re showing everyone how Deloitte can help deliver the world’s most complex event on time. It’s an immovable deadline – how often do you truly get that? And it’s all very public,” she comments, implying there’s absolutely no parameters for delays or any other kind of faux pas.
Growing the brand
Pritchard reveals marketing around the Olympics is helping to further demonstrate how far the Deloitte brand has come since its rebrand back in 2003. She explains the focus is much more on how the organisation does things, rather than what it does and what it looks like.
She says, “In the past, we’ve had big ad campaigns, which were a significant investment in order to differentiate ourselves within the ‘big four’ [Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG], as well as the wider professional services sector. Today, however, it’s much more about the experience you have with our brand. We’re doing significant things in the market place to ensure we’re seen as the distinctive firm and to leverage our brand positioning. We’re challenging our people to bring insight to our clients and challenge their thinking.” Pritchard says it’s this deepened focus that is now helping Deloitte to differentiate itself from the big four competitive set.
Apart from London 2012, Pritchard discusses Deloitte’s other key marketing campaigns. These include sponsorship of the Royal Opera House (Deloitte Ignite recently took place again to huge success) and a newly announced partnership with London Business School – part of a big focus on social innovation and entrepreneurship in which Deloitte will also be sponsoring a chairperson. Pritchard also details Deloitte’s four-year title sponsorship deal with the Deloitte Ride Across Britain – for which the firm chose Paralympics GB as its charity partner. With 20 per cent of riders being Deloitte staff and clients, Pritchard says it provides the perfect opportunity for promoting internal brand advocacy and client engagement.
Pace not race
All of the campaigns Pritchard talks about share a common theme – longevity. She reveals the brand is even more focused on building long-term relationships than it has been in the past. And one of the ways in which it is doing this, follows a ‘less is more’ approach.
“We’re doing fewer things – brilliantly,” says Pritchard. “If we’re going to invest in something, let’s not play around with 10 things, let’s just do three things really well. And each of those three things should demonstrate one or more attributes about who we are as a brand and business.” Pritchard explains the campaigns Deloitte chooses to get involved with are tightly bound in with the brand’s own values so that there’s always a clear link to how a particular campaign ties in with the next. She says, “It’s more compelling to have cohesion rather than lots of smaller campaigns that are disconnected with an inconsistent message or story.”
So what’s been Pritchard’s biggest challenge at Deloitte? Time, she says. Not having enough of it and knowing when precisely to deliver a message so that it strikes a chord with the audience. After all, active marketing around London 2012 has been ongoing for Deloitte since 2007. Pritchard’s therefore had to maintain enough marketing momentum to ensure engagement over the last four years, without alienating or bombarding the audience with irrelevantly timed messaging. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she says. “We don’t want to over communicate.” Indeed, as each stage of London 2012 preparations has been rolled out, Deloitte has tailored its marketing message to tie in with this activity.
Pritchard talks in length about Deloitte’s activities surrounding the London Olympics. It’s clearly something she’s very proud of being involved with. And who can blame her? How many other marketers will be able to boast they’ve helped market the greatest show on earth?
Career history
- Deloitte – 2008 to date
London 2012 sponsorship director - Deloitte – 2006-2008
Head of brand - Deloitte – 2005-2006
Corporate marketing manager - CIM – 2004-2005
Corporate brand manager
Pritchard’s top tips for maintaining campaign momentum
- 1. Think about what your message is, where your market’s mindset is, and decide how you’re going to put your message out to market. Then when your market changes, match your message.
- 2. Don’t be scared to tone it down if you need to. Don’t force a message that may not be appropriate to the timing.
- 3. Have a different voice to your competitors but be true to yourself as a business and make sure your activity has resonance with the brand. That’s where
the sweet spot will be for your message. - 4. Don’t attempt too much.
If there’s a dissonance between activity, your audience won’t think your brand message is clear.
