PHD and Starcomare the winners of Asian media accountof the second largest brewery company in the world in its recently concluded global media pitch.
Omnicom Media Group’s PHD will take over media duties for all of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global brands in the South Asian markets of Vietnam, India and Australia. Meanwhile, PublicisGroupe’sStarcom will take over the Northern markets of South Korea, Japan and Greater China, including Hong Kong.
The latter APAC markets are those classed as “key” for Belgian-Brazilian beer giant. However, the status of media duties in the remainder of South East Asia, where Heineken’s Tiger brand dominates, remains undecided.
Dentsu Aegis Network’s Vizeum will take over media duties from the incumbent global agency MediaCom in the United States, Canada, Europe and Africa. However, the WPP-owned agency will get to keep Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and several Caribbean countries.
Known largely for its Budweiser and Stella Artois brands, globally the brewer ranks as the eighth-largest advertiser with US$4.8 billion in spending, as of the end of 2015, according to AdAge’s Data Centre.
The win will mark a pleasant reversal of fortune for Publicis Media, after its agency Zenith lost the US$500 million LVMH APAC media account earlier this year to a bespoke GroupM agency.