A-B InBev has cut the number of agencies participating in its media agency review to three shops, including Omincom’s OMD, WPP’s MediaCom and Publicis Groupe’s Spark, according to sources.
Dentsu Aegis Network’s Vizeum and Havas Media had also been pitching, but did not make it to the next round, per sources. The agencies declined to comment or could not be immediately reached.
Word of the brewing giant’s U.S. media agency review surfaced last month. The shop spent around $575 million on ads in the U.S. last year according to Kantar. Brands include Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella Artois and Beck's among others.
It’s the latest in a series of reviews that the brewer has launched around the world, including a pan-European review in June.
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Earlier, the company held reviews in China and Latin America. The U.S. review comes after the company appointed Jom Socquest U.S. Vice President of Marketing earlier this year.
Socquest replaced Paul Chibe, who hired Starcom, a unit of Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest Group, in 2011 to assist it with its internal media planning and research capabilities for all the company’s U.S. beer brands across national, local and digital media.
That award was the first time in nearly two decades that A-B -- the maker of Budweiser, Bud Light, and other brands -- hired an outside agency for help with media chores in the U.S. Until now the brewer has continued to handle media buying in-house.