• Advertising Age, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 10:34 PM

Anheuser-Busch InBev is huddling with its global media agencies to hammer out standard practices for media buying across the globe. Observers see the talks as a precursor to a large-scale media review. The company spends more than $1 billion globally each year on media advertising and sports sponsorships

Involved in the talks are IPG's' Universal McCann and Publicis' Starcom MediaVest, who both handle A-B InBev media business outside the U.S. IPG took the unusual step of notifying a major U.S. client -- A-B rival MillerCoors -- about the discussions.

Agency sources say the client is "conducting an exercise that evaluates the strengths of their agency lineup," asking for examples of global work for a number of clients, and also for samples of digital capabilities. A-B's U.S. media buying and planning has been handled by the brewer's Busch Media Group unit since the early 1990s. It has been the subject of intense speculation practically from the moment InBev bought A-B late last year.

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