'Good Call,' 'Taste Matters' on Tap at Miller

CHICAGO Despite a slow first quarter for Miller Lite and with Anheuser-Busch reacting like a swarm whose beehive has been raided, Miller Brewing president Norman Adami said that the flagship brand will be shooting for double-digit volume increases this year.Adami told wholesalers attending the annual distributors conference in Milwaukee, April 12-14, that there would be no letup on the comparison ads, which, along with the lower carb and lower calorie repositioning and on-premise taste tests, helped Lite outperform Bud Light last year. That path was punctuated by the announcement during the conference that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau snubbed A-B's complaint, ruling that Miller did not violate regulations relating to comparative advertising, nor did it make false, misleading and disparaging statements.Unlike previous spots, the new "Good Call" creative will not show bottles of Bud and Bud Light, although the competitive brands will be mentioned. Upcoming TV work will bring back the Miller referees, this time attending referee training school. A-B tried to cloud consumers' association between Miller Lite and the referees in the spots by Ogilvy & Mather, New York, by airing commercials featuring referees being chased by cops for pilfering Bud and Bud Light. Another "Good Call" ad shows people stuck outside in a downpour, actually a beer rain shower, tapping on the windows while waiting to get into a bar full of Miller Lite patrons.Other Miller ads coming this summer will be the "Whatever you do, taste matters" campaign. The series shows subjects engaged in a variety of activities. A voiceover states a litany of affirmations, including "Weekends matter; Camping matters; Boating matters; With Miller, taste matters."Part of A-B's strategy will be to trumpet its American heritage now that it is the only major brewer that is not owned by a foreign corporation. Miller is a unit of London-based SABMiller and Coors merged with Montreal-based Molson to form Molson Coors. Adami dismissed the flag-waving, admitting to his audience that yes he has a foreign accent. "So did Frederick Miller [the brewery's founder] and so did most of your grandfathers. I'd even guess that Adolphus Busch had one also," he said, referring to one of A-B's founders.Miller's ad budget will be higher than last year ($286 million, per TNS Media Intelligence), with most of the spending applied to network television. A larger Hispanic outreach also is on tap. The campaign for Miller Genuine Draft will try to bring home the quality product attributes from cold-filtered brewing. The Miller High Life man, created in 1997 by Wieden + Kennedy, makes way for new work from the Portland, Ore., agency featuring the brand's Girl on the Moon icon. Retailers typically do not like to see too much advertising for low-margin economy brands, but Miller's bid to lift up the entire portfolio dictates it take on A-B's Busch and Natural Light. So Miller broadens the "Brewed for a man's taste" campaign for Milwaukee's Best to TV. Creative from the New York shop of London-based Mother shows a man sweet-talking his wife and another guy adoring a poodle before being crushed by a giant Milwaukee's Best beer can. Voiceover states, "A man should act like a man, and a beer should taste like a beer.

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'Good Call,' 'Taste Matters' on Tap at Miller

Mike Beirne

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