Barker & Ralston keeps 3m Beck’s

Barker & Ralston has retained the 3m Beck’s Bier advertising account after pitching against M&C Saatchi and Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe.

Barker & Ralston has retained the 3m Beck’s Bier advertising account after pitching against M&C Saatchi and Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe.

Scottish Courage, which markets Beck’s in the UK, put the account up for pitch in October as part of its brands advertising review. Scottish Courage, the UK’s largest brewer, was formed after Scottish & Newcastle’s acquisition of Courage last year.

The brief was to devise new creative work for Beck’s advertising. It is understood the new work will involve press and posters and will develop this summer’s campaign, which hit out at European Commission bureaucracy with the strapline: “Keep them out of our beer.”

The brand has failed to establish a long-running campaign since it dropped the “Brewmen from Bremen” campaign last year. This was followed by the “green sails” push by German agency BBDO-DB.

Beck’s is the latest in a string of reviews for Scottish Courage’s brands. McEwan’s lager was retained by CDP last month, but the agency had previously lost the McEwan’s ales business to Faulds Advertising.