Beck's Looks To Energize Marketing

Brandweek, July 17, 2000 by Gerry Khermouch, Andrew McMains

Beck's North America has approached U.S. marketing execs about taking a top-tier post as high as the CEO level, even as it works with agency Saatchi & Saatchi, N.Y., to plot a more compelling ad direction, industry execs said.

Word is the Stamford, Conn., firm has retained Heidrick & Struggles to recruit a marketing-driven veteran who can energize the marketing without offending headquarters sensitivities in the manner of Saatchi's striking, expressionistic "best of what Germans do best" campaign, which was admired even by rival marketers but abruptly dropped only a few months after its late-1998 launch. Since then, BNA has cut its media budget and relied on blander, bottle-centric 15-second ads airing only on ESPN.

For all the ad drift, Beck's has been growing, if not at the rate of Heineken and Corona, and its audacious Beck's Light extension seems off to a good start. Though he lacks marketing experience, CEO Bill Yetman, who came up through the sales ranks, is liked and respected by the sales force and wholesalers. Saatchi declined to comment and neither Yetman nor Heidrick returned a call Friday afternoon.

Saatchi, wedded to the BNA account because of Beck's importance in Germany, has been having "an interesting strategic debate," as one source put it, to try to settle on a more vital creative direction. A discussion three weeks ago will be continued this week when a group from Bremen arrives in New York for a regularly scheduled meeting with Saatchi.

Other importers have had high-level changes. Last week, Heineken vet Franz Van der Minne got the nod to succeed Heineken USA president Michael Foley who is heading off to run Aer Lingus.