Is it Miller Time?

From the WSJ.com:

Beer giant MillerCoors, seeking to revive its flagging Miller Lite after a string of marketing missteps, is spending more than $100 million on a new campaign that features redesigned cans and bottles and new ads centered on the brand's familiar theme: "Tastes Great."

The campaign -- one of MillerCoors's first strategic thrusts since it was formed last summer by combining rivals Miller Brewing and Coors Brewing -- is aimed at grabbing market share from leader Anheuser-Busch InBev and its top-selling Bud Light brand. While the new ads don't attack Bud Light by name, they are clearly designed to persuade consumers that Miller Lite is the better-tasting brew.

Miller

In a new twist on the 'Tastes Great' theme, Miller Lite ads are heralding the beer's 'triple hops' brewing process.

A few of the new TV, radio and Internet ads have started appearing in recent weeks. But on Thursday, the company offered a first look at the rest of the campaign to more than 3,000 distributors and MillerCoors employees at its national sales conference in Las Vegas.

In one TV ad, two mobsters walk into a bar and warn a lanky bartender that he needs "protection" or "bad things can happen." The bartender reaches for a bottle of Miller Lite, points to its new "taste protector cap" and says, "I've got all the protection I need."

Miller Lite, which introduced Americans to light beer in the 1970s, mostly has posted sales declines in recent years, and its performance has worsened under its new owner, a joint venture of SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing. In the fourth quarter, sales from distributors to retailers were down 7.5% from a year earlier by volume.

One problem is that Miller Lite has bounced from one ad strategy to another in recent years. "The brand has lacked a clear identity for so long," says Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily, an online industry newsletter. "They just haven't been able to find its voice."

Leo Kiely, chief executive of MillerCoors, told analysts this month that the brand's sales have been hurt more than sister brand Coors Light by consumers cutting back on trips to bars and restaurants during the recession. About 35% of Miller Lite's sales occur in this so-called "on premise" category, which accounts for just 20% of Coors Light's sales.

Now, MillerCoors, borrowing a page from Coors Light, says it will convey a consistent and straightforward message about the Miller Lite brand. That message will be built around taste.

Ad agencies Bogle Bartle Hegarty and Interpublic Group's DraftFCB produced the new Miller Lite campaign. DraftFCB is behind Coors Light's ad strategy.

Coors Light's sales have climbed for 15 consecutive quarters, bolstered -- analysts and executives say -- by a simple theme of "Rocky Mountain cold refreshment" that has appealed to its key market of 21- to 34-year-old men. Coors Light has hammered home that theme in ads and with new packaging, including "cold-activated bottles," whose labels turn blue when the beer inside cools to a certain temperature.

In a new twist on the "Tastes Great" theme, MillerCoors is rolling out ads that herald its "triple hops" brewing process, in which hops -- the flowers that give beer its distinctive bitterness and aroma -- are added to the beer at three different stages. The company says this gives the beer its flavor, "balance" and proper level of foam.

Miller Lite's new "taste protector" cans will likewise tout the process. The cans have a lining on the inside to keep the beer from touching the aluminum, which can cause a metallic taste. The company also will promote new bottles with different labels as well as a "taste protector cap" designed to preserve the taste of the beer, says Andy England, chief marketing officer at MillerCoors.

"Miller Lite has been triple-hops brewed for decades, but we've never talked about it," Mr. England says. "We've never told anybody we have this unique and proprietary" process.

Highlighting the brand's brewing process, however, carries the risk of backfiring with consumers, who are increasingly knowledgeable about beer ingredients. Light lagers like Miller Lite, have a low hops content, especially compared with many of the small-batch "craft" beers that are enjoying the industry's highest growth rates.

"By overtly marketing their multiaddition hopping process, the consumer would presumably expect Miller Lite to be an overtly hoppy beer; it's not," says Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, which is known for its high-hops ales.

MillerCoors also might find it hard to boost Miler Lite sales at the same time Coors Light sales are growing. The brands compete in a number of markets, says John Greening, a professor of marketing communications at Northwestern University who used to advise Anheuser-Busch on ad strategy.

Miller Lite dominated the light-beer wars of the 1980s with its famed "Tastes Great, Less Filling" pitch. Miller Lite is now the No. 2-selling light beer in the U.S. after Bud Light, whose sales volume rose less than 1% last year, according to newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights. Coors Light, the nation's No. 3 light beer, has been enjoying healthier sales growth than either Bud Light or Miller Lite.

MillerCoors won't disclose how much it plans to spend on the new ad campaign this year, but Mr. England said it would be "well north of $100 million." Miller Lite spent $95.9 million on advertising in the first nine months of last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Write to David Kesmodel at david.kesmodel@wsj.com

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