- Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Heineken USA has selected Euro RSCG to handle creative duties on its Heineken and Heineken Premium Light brands after a review, the client has confirmed.

Major media spending on the brands exceeded $70 million last year, down from more than $100 million in 2007, according to Nielsen. Those figures don't include online spending.

Euro RSCG "demonstrated a clear understanding of the Heineken consumer, our brand tone and the challenges we face in the market today," said Christian
McMahan, chief marketing officer at Heineken in White Plains, N.Y. "Throughout the process, they exhibited strong thinking and analytics as well as a passion for the consumer that will help elevate the Heineken brand for the future."

The winner pitched the business out of its New York office, as did the other finalists, which the client previously confirmed as Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day, independent StrawberryFrog and the incumbent, independent Wieden + Kennedy.

Sources said that Heineken notified the finalists of its decision today. Each of the contenders had an existing relationship with Heineken, with Euro RSCG, for example, handling creative duties on sister brand Dos Equis and TBWA's office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, working on Heineken in select European markets.

The review came as Heineken announced plans to move its marketing operation to Manhattan. As such, the client expressed a desire to work with a New York shop. That's why Wieden pitched out of its office here, instead of its headquarters in Portland, Ore., where the account had been based. The agency had handled the business since late 2007, when it shifted from WPP Group's Berlin Cameron United here.