Draftfcb has won agency of record duties for Miller Lite beer as part of a massive agency restructuring for MillerCoors brands.
Draftfcb replaces Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which had been AOR for the light beer since 2007. The move cements Draftfcb’s position within the MillerCoors empire: it’s been the AOR for Coors Light for many years, handles creative work for Coors, and, shortly after the partnership between Miller and Coors was signed last year, the beverage maker consolidated its media accounts with MC Media — a joint venture between Draftfcb, Initiative and Kinetic, which focuses solely on MillerCoors brands. In all, Draftfcb has been working with Coors brands for 30 years.
In a possible sign of changes to come, Miller Lite awarded Draftfcb a holiday campaign project and also asked the agency for strategic positioning help. Draftfcb produced some additional work for Miller Lite, which was shown at the bottlers’ meeting just a few weeks ago.
Miller Lite also has named Omnicom’s Integer as its new retail promotions agency. Integer, which will take strategic cues from Draftfcb on the Miller Lite account, also works with Coors, Coors Light and Blue Moon. Digitas, which currently leads creative for Foster’s and Sparks, also will be working with Draftfcb on the digital aspects of the Miller Lite account.
In other agency switches, MillerCoors replaced Y&R Chicago with Saatchi & Saatchi as AOR for Miller Genuine Draft and MGD 64. The agency, which already worked on Miller High Life, also won creative duties for Keystone.
Jacbson-Rost, the agency behind MillerCoors’ Leinenkugel craft beer and Henry Weinhards, won creative duties for George Killian’s Irish Red. And ARC, a Publicis agency, was awarded retail promotion assignments for Miller High Life, Milwaukee’s Best, Miller Chill, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch, Keystone and Molson.
“We have assembled a team of world class agencies capable of delivering differentiated and engaging programming for our brands,” Andy England, CMO of MillerCoors said in a statement. “We are excited to work with this powerful agency roster, which has already demonstrated its ability to deliver creative executions that drive brand growth.”
In a sign that consolidation was the focus, the beer company did not allow any outside shops to pitch. Yearly media spend for the Miller Lite brand is estimated at more than $100 million.
