Beer behemoth MillerCoors has joined the ranks of big marketers that want an ad agency of their own.
A joint venture between the nation’s second-and third-largest beer companies, MillerCoors tapped ad giant Interpublic to create a new unit, MC Media in Chicago, to handle the brewer’s ad buying and planning duties.
A trio of Interpublic shops – media-buyer Initiative, ad agency DraftFCB and outdoor firm Kinetic – will pitch in to form the dedicated division, with an estimated $400 million in annual billings.
MillerCoors, which united the US operations of SABMiller and Molson Coors in July, invited a handful of agencies that worked for both companies to compete for the combined business.
Before the merger, Initiative was Coors’ media-buying agency and DraftFCB had creative duties.
Publicis’ Starcom, which was the big loser in the closely watched contest, handled the legacy Miller business.
MillerCoors believes a dedicated media shop will wield more marketing clout in its already pitched battle with the new No. 1 beer maker, Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois.
MillerCoors, whose stable of brands includes mainstream Miller Lite and Coors Lite as well as imports Peroni and Molson, is also looking to streamline its operations after promising investors $500 million in cost savings from the merger.
“The extended team that will form our new MC Media unit is committed to ensuring that MillerCoors becomes America’s best beer company,” said Bob Bernstein, chief media officer for DraftFCB Chicago, who will serve as managing director of MC Media.
The brewer isn’t the first big advertiser to ask for a specialized set-up – a practice that has met with mixed results.
For instance, Starcom created a dedicated unit to handle General Motors’ massive media-buying business, GM Planworks, which has been hard hit by the automaker’s woes.
Similarly, Dell decided to house all its advertising, marketing and public relations functions under one roof. WPP’s dedicated Dell agency, called Enfatico, has been slow to churn out work while on a hiring binge. holly.sanders@nypost.com