"Winning in premium lights [beer] is the centerpiece of our
long-term business stragegy, and we've determined that some agency
changes will give us the best chance to do exactly that ,"
MillerCoors Exec VP-Chief Marketing Officer Andy England told Ad
Age today. "What we are looking for is sustainable, above-the-line
excellence with an integrated solution," including traditional and
digital marketing.
The new WPP team will be housed in Chicago (where MillerCoors is
headquartered) and draw on talent from JWT, Ogilvy, Y&R and Grey , as well as digital
shops. WPP declined to comment.
Mr. England said he was impressed by the "depth of creative
talent and beer experience" of the group. "It is deep and it is
wide. We'll have access to an enormous bench of creative
talent."
As part of the shift, the brewer is moving digital planning and
buying on Coors brands to Interpublic's Initiative , which will
also pick up traditional media planning for all brands. The shop
was already doing traditional media buying.
The decision is a major blow for DraftFCB, Chicago, which is
still trying to regain its footing after losing the global SC Johnson account, a relationship
that dates back 58-plus years and was one of the agency's largest
accounts. The agency has had Miller Lite since 2009, and its roots
on the Coors brand goes back to 1979, when predecessor Foote Cone
Belding worked on the brand.
DraftFCB began losing its grip on Lite in January, when the
brand brought in Saatchi & Saatchi, New York -- already a
roster agency -- to assist on the "Miller Time " campaign that
premiered in late March and is aimed at lifting the nation's
fourth-largest beer from a long slump. The loss of Coors Banquet
and Coors Light is especially tough for the agency. Each brand has
been growing lately. Coors Light passed Budweiser last year as the
No. 2 beer in the U.S., partly because of its long-running
cold-refreshment messaging.
"We are obviously very disappointed by this decision, but have
no choice but to accept it," DraftFCB said in a statement. "We are
extremely proud of the work we have produced for MillerCoors over
the course of our relationship, and we wish the client continued
success going forward.
"We're especially pleased to have helped Coors Light surpass
Budweiser as the country's No. 2 beer earlier this year, and we
look forward to continuing our assignments with MolsonCoors in
Canada, and with Coors in China and Puerto Rico," the company
said.
Mr. England said that he was "very grateful to DraftFCB for its
decades of work on helping to build Coors Light and Coors Banquet
into the vibrant and groing brands that we have today." But, he
added, "you don't continue growing by staying put."
DraftFCB and Saatchi & Saatchi had been working separately
on Miller Lite since January, with each assigned roughly half the
work for the new campaign. In effect, the process was a public
tryout for the high-profile account, which was backed by more than
$146 million in measured media in 2011, according to Kantar.
The Saatchi ads "tested well, which is very important to us,"
Mr. England said. He said he was also impressed with the agencies'
work on the recently rebranded Miller64 (formerly MGD64) and cited
the benefit of bringing the Miller brands under one shop.
Miller Lite has struggled recently. Shipments fell by 4.3% in
2011, and market share dropped to 7.2% from 7.4%, according to Beer
Marketer's Insights. In the first quarter, Lite sales to retailers
were down "low single digits," an improvement over other recent
quarters, according to SABMiller, which owns the brewer, along with
Molson Coors.
With "Miller Time ," the brewer is seeking to position the brand
as the beer of choice when good friends get together, reprising the classic tagline that
in previous incarnations had been used to plug Lite as the reward
for hard work. Saatchi's ads, which were the first out of the gate,
featured scenes of close friends enjoying the brew while camping,
golfing and playing cards.
DraftFCB's spots, which began airing in April,
showed friends with nicknames like "The Hound" and "Mr. Easy," in
nighttime scenes. The agency also created ads promoting Lite's new
"Punch Top" cans, which have a second hole meant to be opened with
a house key, golf tee or other object. The brewer says the small
opening "increases airflow, reducing glug and resulting in an
improved, smoother pour."
Like most big beer brands, Lite is searching for marketing
solutions in the face of aggressive competition for millennials
from spirits and regional craft beers. The nation's largest beer,
Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, last year hired Dentsu's McGarryBowen,
Chicago, ending a long relationship with
DDB, Chicago.
A-B has also launched higher-alcohol Bud Light Platinum, aimed
partly at stealing share from spirits.
"Miller Time " is markedly different from Draft's previous
effort, called "Man Up," which sought to position Lite as a
superior-tasting beer by using over-the-top humor to mock men who
chose other brands.
~~
Contributing: Maureen Morrison
