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Creativity Top 5

Creativity Weekly Aug. 11 from AdAge.com

MillerCoors Names Marketing Leaders

MillerCoors chief marketing officer Andy England announced leadership team of folks tasked with "connecting our brands with beer drinkers." Here they are:

Michael Browne, vp, above premium
Lee Dolan, vp, Coors family of brands
Pat Edson, vp, innovation
Ed Gawronski, vp, insights
Grant Leech, vp, Miller Lite
Sharon McLenahan, senior director, heritage brands (Keystone, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Milwaukee's Best, Icehouse and Mickey's)
Bryce McTavish, vp, retail marketing
Alpesh Patel, senior director, multicultural marketing
Jason Pellegrini, director, portfolio strategy and planning
Jacqueline Woodward, vp, marketing services

An Ultimate Light Beer Challenge for MillerCoors

Source: Beer Marketer's Insights
So Miller Lite has been decreasing in sales while Golden, CO based Coors Light has been increasing. Thus the dilemma ensues, how does MillerCoors boost Miller Lite sales without hurting the Coors Light brand to be able to gain ground on the market share leader Bud Light? In this semi-flat industry the two products have gone back and forth in market share due to similar aspects of the products, all the while Bud Light has kept growing. The challenge seems to be how to steal away Bud Light drinkers and not disrupt each others drinkers at the same time. "There's no reason they can't do it," said one veteran industry executive. "The problem is just that Coors has tended to do shitty advertising at the moments when Miller was clicking, and vice versa." For the article by Jeremy Mullman from AdAge on the issue click here.

August 11, 2008

CHICAGO (AdAge.com)

Windell Interview

Windell Speaks on life as the Miller High Life Delivery Guy on radio show in Michigan.

Common Sense Party

Miller Swimsuit 2005

This ad was printed as a insert booklet in the 2005 SI Swimsuit. Take a look at the whole booklet after the jump.

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. "
Frank Zappa

MAD MEN

For those of you interested in MAD MEN on AMC here is a creative metro advertisement for the hit series. For more images click here.

Oreo Dunk

This ad from DraftFCB New York is in Brasil and the small type below OREO says "Milk's Favorite Cookie".

A Vision by Kanye

Kanye rides in taxis too.

Here's a nice link courtesy of Allie describing the new logo as well as the progression of its design. There is also a nice animation of the MillerCoors logo in the text (Jump to it here.) Along with the article is a plethora of comments from generally disappointed bloggers.
President Tom Long seen here suckin' back on a Rocky Mountain cold Coors Light

MillerCoors

July 1st marked the beginning of a new era, MillerCoors. Video of the press release can be found here. Also here is a jump to the new website. (Pictured above from left to right: Pete Coors, Tom Long, Graham Mackay, & Leo Kiely toasting at the launch)

Baby Beer Names

So apparently Matthew McConaughey wants to name his son after a beer like his brother, Rooster, who has named his child Miller Lyte. Maybe a little celebrity endorsement is in order to get McConaughey to name his kid MGD or I was thinkin' Chill would be a cool name too.

Coors Lights a Fire Under Miller

I was going to summarize this article from AdvertisingAge.com however it has too much information that is worth reading so I've provided the link. The article encompasses several points including Coors executives becoming the CEO as well as the Chief Marketing Officer of MillerCoors. It also speaks on Coors Lights success in marketing this past year.

Amstel Slim Bottle

Amstel has launched a slim bottle and has created this ad along with several others to push the new look of Amstel. The slim bottle aspect may be interesting to the Miller team when Miller's Peroni launches its slim can in January of '09.

This ad was published in May of 2008 by the agency 180 Amsterdam.

More after the jump.

SAB Miller Update

Reuters announced that in an interview with a Handelsbatt reporter, CEO Graham Mackay claimed that SAB Miller will not be considering joining in bidding with InBev to acquire competitor Anheuser-Busch. In fact Mackay believes that if the acquisition does happen that A-B will weaken, most likely because the "Great American Lager" will no longer be American. Mr. Mackay also believes that if InBev does in fact acquire A-B it will not only weaken A-B but also InBev since beer is mainly a local product. On the topic of possible acquisitions Mr. Mackay said, "If the opportunity to acquire a larger German brand were to present itself, then we would take a look at it,".

Grolsch Ad

Here's a cool ad I witnessed while abroad in the Netherlands. It would play in the movie theaters before the featured film (Casino Royale, Borat, The Departed, etc.) and I never got bored of it. The best part was that the theater sold the beers next to the popcorn, gotta love the Dutch.
*Het frisse bier dat minder vult=The fresh beer thats less filling

Oh and the beer was great too.

WalMart Capital Expenditures

On June 17th WalMart was able to update the total capital expenditures for the current fiscal year. They announced that the total capital expenditures would drop to about $13-14 billion as opposed the the $13.5-15.2 billion which was last Octobers estimate. Through these savings WalMart will be able to grow at a faster more efficient rate. WalMart plans to do so by lowering prices to attract the penny pinching customers in this current economy. These budget conscious shoppers will be attracted by much lower prescription pills, prepared meals as well as the addition of Sony and Apple products to the electronics department.

SAB Miller-MolsonCoors Merger

On June 5th the U.S. government cleared the 8 month investigation on the potential merger making certain it would not hinder competition in the U.S. In fact the merger between the two companies was started in an effort to better compete with the dominant company that has a grasp on about half of the U.S. beer market, Anheuser-Busch. The statement put out by Justice departments anti-trust division claimed that the joint venture "is likely to produce substantial and credible savings that will significantly reduce the companies' costs of producing and distributing beer,".With the approval of both the U.S. government and the European Union the merger is set to be in effect on June 3oth with the name becoming Miller Coors the next day. This merger will encompass the production and distribution in the U.S. market as well as Puerto Rico.

M+C Saatchi Kronenburg Ad

Cool ad for Kronenburg 1664.

Look Out Yankee Candle

Just when you thought scented candles had hit all the scents one could smell from a melting piece of wax, Hotwicks has released a beer scented candle. I'm not really sure when you'd want to smell beer without the enjoyment of drinking it but nonetheless its out there. I suppose it could get you going and ready for a night of drinking if you just weren't in the mood.

Idea Generator

Here's a way the Miller team can cut costs in the Creative department.

http://www.tdbspecialprojects.com/

*also available as a widget

A-B discusses merger with Modelo

Recently Anheuser Busch has been proposed a bid by InBev, a Belgium-Brazilian company, which has offered $65 dollars per share for the now $60.43 A-B . However A-B has been looking into ways to make itself too expensive for InBev to purchase. One of these ways has been through talks of merging with the Mexican based Modelo. A-B already owns 50% non-voting equity in the Mexican company. This attempt to make A-B too expensive for InBev has sped up the process and also added extra pressure to the American beer company. With this in mind if A-B does happen to merge with Modelo and increase its value this could potentially mean that the Miller Chill brand would have a much harder time competing with competitors like Corona and Pacifico which are both owned by Modelo.