NEW YORK Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the shop that created the iconic Budweiser Lizards, has been dropped from the Anheuser-Busch agency roster after nearly 15 years with the brewer.
The San Francisco-based Omnicom Group shop attributed the split to cost cutting at the InBev-owned client and a broader reduction of the brewer's agency roster.
"We're sad to lose the Anheuser-Busch business," said Jeff Goodby, agency co-chairman. "We've been working together for a long time -- a longer relationship than most in this business. We've made good advertising together. It's the end of an era."
Keith Levy, vp of marketing at A-B, said the agency was a casualty of the company's realignment of its roster as it seeks to streamline the creative process to focus on the company's biggest brands.
"We are trying to narrow down the field of agencies," Levy said. "Goodby is a great shop, [but] over the last few years we've been doing less and less work together. It's not to say we won't work together over time. For now we're looking at limited scope of work, a tighter agency roster and strategic alignment of agencies against brands."
Although Goodby has produced work for Budweiser and Bud Light in the past, the agency's most recent work for A-B was for Rolling Rock, a brand that will most likely not see advertising support this year as the client focuses its efforts on its best sellers. DDB Chicago is the lead agency on Budweiser and Bud Light.
We're trying to figure out which brands are really going to move the business," Levy added. "[Consumers] are returning to much bigger brands, so it makes sense for us to focus our dollars and efforts against those brands that contribute to the growth of the company in a meaningful way."
In addition to Budweiser and Bud Light, Levy said the brands that are going to get the most advertising support moving forward include Michelob Ultra, handled by Euro RSCG, Chicago, and Stella Artois with Mother, London. Smaller brands, however, will continue to get promotional and activation support, he said.
The agency was hired by August B. Busch IV in September 1995 and has produced hundreds of commercials for the client over the years, including the Clydesdale Super Bowl spot "Born a Donkey" and most recently the Rolling Rock campaign where a fictional marketing director attempts to project the product's logo onto the moon.
Below is one of the classic "Louie the Lizard" spots, in which the scaly anti-hero of the long-running series attempts to eliminate his enemies, Budweiser's frogs.
Click here for the best of Goodby's A-B commercials.
