London, 22 October 2008: News International’s commercial division has secured an exclusive six figure partnership with Accenture, the global consultancy firm, with a campaign to run across The Times and Times Online for nine months from today (22 October).

The campaign will support Accenture’s ongoing marketing strategy and is designed to reinforce the “High Performance Delivered” strapline to The Times’ unrivalled business audience.

The Times is enabling Accenture to sponsor the Need to Know business page, acknowledged as a critical daily read for 80% of business people. In The Times, a co-branded advert will appear weekly to promote the additional activity - the first time advertising has been permitted on this page.

In addition, News International’s solutions team will create a bespoke online section containing crucial business snippets in a variety of formats.

Fully sponsored by Accenture, the online section will contain daily video content featuring senior business writers from both The Times and The Sunday Times, providing a quick summary of the day’s key business stories. In addition, a heat map will give readers an ‘at a glance’ summary of the hottest topics in the business world. The more times a story is read, the redder the headline will become. A further bespoke feature is a weekly video that will focus upon the week’s High Performer.

News International trading director Dominic Carter commented: “Accenture, one of the world’s leading brands, has recognised the traction that News International products have with the key UK business audience. Through the introduction of topical and engaging content that is both informative and entertaining this campaign demonstrates how News International can work with companies to develop means for delivering key corporate messages to this important market segment.

The campaign was brokered by News International Commercial, Accenture and the agency MediaEdge:CIA.