USA: Miller Brewing Co. to launch a new online-only ad campaign for Foster's

Miller Brewing Co. is launching a new Web-based ad campaign for Foster's beer, an Australian brand that has seen sharply declining U.S. sales despite a booming market for imported beers, JS Online released August 17.

Foster's long-running tagline, "Australian for Beer," has been dropped. Instead, Miller is focusing less on the beer's national origin and more on its social aspects, company spokesman Peter Marino said August 17.

The marketing campaign so far is using the Internet as its only advertising medium - a rarity for large brewers, which traditionally have relied heavily on television and radio.

The new campaign uses the tagline of "Crack Open a Friendly." A Web site, crackopenafriendly.com, is scheduled to go live within the next week, and it will include videos resembling homemade ads for Foster's that are produced by the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, Marino said.

Foster's also is sponsoring a contest at heavy.com, a music, humor and video Web site popular with young men. The contest, "The Massive Mating Game," offers videos of 10 different Australian women. The grand prize is a date, in Las Vegas, with one of the women.

The shift to the Internet is an attempt to draw more beer drinkers who are 21 to 27 years old, the brewing industry's biggest demographic target, Marino said.

"When you think about where these guys are, they're online in increasing numbers," Marino said. "They want media on their own terms."

Foster's is owned by Foster's Group Ltd., and Miller has held the U.S. licensing rights for the beer since 1993. The Foster's consumed in the United States is brewed in Canada through a licensing agreement with Molson Coors Brewing Co. That's not unusual for the U.S. brewing industry, where several imports are brewed in North America under production contracts in order to reduce shipping times and costs.

Foster's was a strong brand throughout the 1990s, when the "Australian for Beer" TV spots helped establish it as one of the nation's most popular imported beers.

But with the proliferation of imported beers over the past five years, Foster's became "a little bit lost" within that fragmented market, Marino said.

Foster's U.S. sales totaled 685,000 barrels in 2001, according to Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication. In 2005, Foster's sold 470,000 barrels - a 31% decline.

During that same period, sales of beer imported to the United States were up 17%.

South African Breweries Plc's 2002 purchase of Miller - which created SABMiller Plc - brought two new imports into Miller's U.S. brand lineup: Peroni Nastro Azzurro, from Italy, and Pilsner Urquell, a Czech beer. Miller has put more resources into promoting those brands, which both sell at higher prices than Foster's.

Foster's was selling August 17 at Murray's Wine and Spirits, 342 E. Silver Spring Drive, Whitefish Bay, for $5.69 for a six-pack of bottles. That compared with $4.89 for a six-pack of Miller Genuine Draft and $7.49 price for a six-pack of Corona, the country's bestselling imported beer.

But Foster's, despite its lagging sales and lower price, remains by far Miller's top-selling import. It was the country's 10th largest imported beer in 2005. Miller's second-largest import, Pilsner Urquell, sold 140,000 barrels last year, according to Beer Marketer's Insights.

The online marketing campaign for Foster's is an important investment for Miller, Marino said.

It's also an unusual move. It might be the first time a marketing campaign for a major beer brand has relied completely on the Internet as its advertising medium, said Benj Steinman, publisher of Beer Marketer's Insights.

It makes sense for Miller to go only online with Foster's, Steinman said. He said the estimated $5 million in annual ad spending for Foster's would buy a relatively small amount of TV time.

"The amount of money they've spent on TV is not enough to move the needle," Steinman said. "So you get creative."

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