Tiger Woods - finding fulfillment at every step

Another day, another celebrity makes a fool of themselves. This time Tiger Woods has been a bit of a naughty boy allegedly knocking up at least 10 extramarital notches on his bedpost. Not great news then for Accenture, the global IT services company which has sponsored the professional golfer since 2003, featuring him in much of the company’s print, broadcast and digital adverting.

It’s not the first time that a celebrity has damaged a brand by doing or saying something a bit stupid and it won’t be the last. But sometimes it’s not just the advert that can get companies in hot water; it’s where the ad has been placed. Marks & Spencer discovered this earlier this year when the company quickly decided to pull it’s advertising from the Daily Mail’s website after users spotted it appearing alongside Jan Moir’s homophobic article about Stephen Gateley’s death.

Only time will tell if Accenture, Nike, Electronic Arts and the other brands that Tiger Woods represents will continue to back the star. But what’s clear is that businesses need a contingency plan in place to deal with the transgressions of celebrities.

Cheap as free chips

But, those guys at EA have taken it one step further with Battlefield Heroes – a free to play game that pits you against multiple players around the world for some gruesome WW2, first person shooter fun. With almost endless opportunities for character personalisation EA is hoping to drive revenue by selling clothing and other attributes for your avatar through its payment system of Battlefunds. Again this is nothing new, players have been paying for kit for years in World of Warcraft. EA are making waves by pushing this pricing model into the hectic world of online first person shooters; will it pay off for EA? The signs are looking good as gamers keen to express their personalities get creative.

However, you can bet that a team as savvy as EA isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket, in fact PC and console gamers can look forward to Battlefield 1943 in a couple of days. Traditional pricing models still apply.

Wonder if it would be cheeky to download on my work laptop, research purposes only. Please don’t tell IT.