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Coors announced last week it is out-sourcing its promotions and marketing previously handled in-house by its Integrated Marketing Resources Group. Insiders say that is only one of several things Coors is looking at to boost profits and increase its marketing firepower.
‘There are indications Kiely wants to spend more behind advertising and new products,’ said a Coors source. ‘That’s on his agenda.’
Coors asked Ron Askew, a top-executive at Tracy-Locke/DDB Needham in Dallas to join with promotions veterans Ted Case and Bill Dunlap, partners in Dallas-based Case-Dunlap Enterprises, to form promotions and marketing-services agency Front Range Communications around Coors’ needs.
The move was part of a larger effort, which included the layoff of 500 mostly white-collar workers, to cut overhead and improve profits at Coors. Other areas, such as distribution, also are being looked at.
Front Range, which has agreed to offer positions to the 100 displaced Coors marketing staffers, plans to open in the Denver area in September and employ roughly 130 people. The agency will handle an unusual mix of services for the Golden, Colo.-based brewer that include not only merchandising and consumer promotions but local outdoor and radio media buying, fulfillment and licensing. The agency also will operate the trademark gift shop at the Coors visitor’s center in Golden.
Coors will be Front Range’s only client initially, but Askew said that it will actively seek other businesses ‘later this quarter.’
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