Cheers and tears over a beer

Arno Lenior

A major agency shake-up at Lion Nathan has some advertising firms raising a glass and others crying into their beer.

Publicis Mojo and its media-buying sister firm, Optimedia, were the big winners in the review, finalised in the week before Christmas.

Optimedia won all of Lion's New Zealand media placement work and Mojo picked up the creative work for the brewer's four largest accounts: Speight's, Lion Red, Steinlager and its regional brands, including Waikato Draught.

The man behind the review, Lion Nathan New Zealand's newly appointed group marketing director, Arno Lenior, declined to detail the company's advertising spend. However, each of the major brands churns through millions of dollars a year.

The shake-up is a major loss for MTC, the agency formerly known as Meares Taine, which lost the four big accounts to Mojo.

MTC directors Roy Meares and Jeremy Taine have been behind some of Lion's most memorable television advertisements.

Optimedia replaces media companies Media Directions (which has been responsible for placing the beer side of Lion's business) and OMD (responsible for wines, spirits and ready-to-drink mixes).

Colenso is the other loser, surrendering the Mac's account to new agency Shine, although Colenso retains Lion's Corona and Guinness/Kilkenny accounts.

Two other agencies in the Lion stable retained their creative accounts: WRC (wines and spirits) and FCB (Stella Artois).

Lenior said the agency review was part of a wider restructuring that had merged Lion's two previously separate marketing divisions, one handling beer and the other wines and spirits.

It also involved a realisation that requirements were changing.

"TV's not the answer it once was," Lenior says.

"More people are choosing to get their information from the internet or watching Desperate Housewives on their iPod. I'm not suggesting [TV as a medium] is going to go away, but I'm suggesting that the rise of the more non-traditional mediums is absolutely upon us and growing every day."

Lenior joined Lion in late August from Apple where, as head of Australia and New Zealand marketing for the past four years, he was responsible for the regional launch of the iPod.

"It is a different industry, there's no doubt about it, but it's all about brands and getting our messages across in the right way."

Drinkers today have a range of typically seven drinks they regularly consume. As a brewer and distributor of about 50 beer, wine and spirit brands, Lion will get smarter about marketing its portfolio, Lenior says.

"Because of our multi-beverage approach to the market, it was a prime time for us to understand - particularly from a media perspective - what the synergies were from that regard and how we could leverage the portfolio."

Enter Optimedia which works on media strategy for Lion in Australia and has impressed Lenior with its ability to effectively push an advertising message from TV all the way to the bottle store chiller.

He says the way people buy and consume beer is also changing. The growing importance of supermarket sales called for smarter marketing, as did the rise of theme bars like Belgium beer cafes and Speight's ale houses.

"You'll see us being a bit more aggressive in that [theme bar] space going forward because we recognise the power of it."

An industry-wide trend towards increased sales of "premium" beer has presented a dilemma for brewers, including Lion.

While the higher margins it makes on sales of beers like Stella Artois are attractive, they come at the expense of falling sales of high volume "mainstream" labels such as Lion Red.

Lenior says marketing mainstream beer remains vital for Lion "but I don't want to underplay the importance of the other brands and how important they are to us strategically moving forward".

Any changes to how the major brands are advertised have yet to be worked through with Mojo.

However, Lenior says the strategy will be based around an "involving idea" for each beer.

"Instead of having a brand where we have one idea on TV, one idea as a promotion, sponsor a sporting event of one description and never the twain will meet, we're going to take a different approach in that everything should be linked in some way and that's the involving idea."

Lion Red, the victim of declining sales and several brand personality changes during the past decade, is likely to present Lion and Mojo with its biggest headache.

"We've got a lot of work to do on the brand," Lenior says.

"It's strong, so it's certainly not panic stations from our perspective. It's a brand that has got a huge life ahead of it."

Publicis Mojo Australasia chairman Graeme Wills describes Lion Red as "a hugely popular brand. It's mainstream New Zealand".

He says that while creative strategies have yet to be finalised, changes are afoot.

"I've got to word this carefully. Lots of times the drinker is depicted as a bit of a dickhead and I think that's totally inappropriate. It just needs a totally different look at it."

Lion's agency shake-up follows a change of advertising agencies by rival brewer DB in August when Saatchi & Saatchi replaced M&C Saatchi.