The world’s largest brewery, AB InBev, has outsourced the majority of its media planning and buying activities to Publicis Media, following a competitive review.
Publicis will work across the brewery’s brands – including Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois – in the UK and Europe, the US, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe and Asia – representing 39 markets and approximately 90% of its activity.
Publicis Media creates a bespoke business unit, ABI One, to manage media buying and planning activity globally. Countryside understands that Starcom will be the lead agency in the UK, Europe and the US.
Dentsu has been assigned media functions in Canada and Africa, with iProspect the lead agency globally and Dentsu X working on it in Canada. Dentsu said it declined to resume business in the United States, where it was the incumbent.
WPP also participated in a global review that began last year and was managed by MediaLink.
Previously, Dentsu’s iProspect held the planning and purchasing account in the UK and Europe, US, Canada and Africa; MediaCom had it all over Latin America; and Starcom in Colombia and APAC.
The review was a straight shootout between the three holding groups in place; the new media planning and buying contracts will last for five and a half years.
AB InBev is one of the world’s largest advertisers and spent over $5 billion on advertising in 2021. In the UK, its brands also include Camden, Beck’s and Hoegaarden.
Announcing the news, AB InBev said it plans to evolve its approach to media planning and buying by “strengthening collaboration with our internal teams and partner agencies, all with data and creativity. central to our efforts” to “produce measurable business growth. through partnership, innovation, effectiveness and efficiency”.
Luiz Barros, AB InBev’s Global Vice President of Data and Media, said: “More than selecting a media agency, our goal with this review was to choose a transformation partner who can help us accelerate our journey and generate strong business growth.
“Publicis Groupe and Dentsu have demonstrated over the years working with us the required collaboration, and they have invested heavily in new capabilities and talent that will leverage data and technology to enable us to be more innovative, efficient and effective with our media strategies.”
AB InBev’s global CMO, Pedro Earp, said the media agency’s partners would help the brewery “achieve our dream of a future with more acclaim”.
This is the second big global account win for Publicis Media this week after winning LVMH’s media business in the UK and Europe.
Publicis Groupe chief executive and chairman Arthur Sadoun said the holding group was “proud” to extend its partnership with AB InBev.
“The strategic work we have done together, across APAC, LATAM, and most recently with Epsilon data and technology, has laid a solid foundation for our future together,” he added.
“Now, working together globally, our integrated model and capabilities will help AB InBev further accelerate its transformation.”
Amanda Morrissey, Global Client and President of IProspect Brand, said, “We have had an incredible decade-long relationship with AB InBev, creating exceptional, award-winning work for their brands around the world. As we focus our production in Canada and across Africa, we look forward to continuing to raise the bar for media excellence.
