The Lounge wins SABMiller brief

Hannah Marriott, PR Week UK, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 12:00am,

Youth marketing agency The Lounge has been hired by SABMiller to promote its beer brand Miller Genuine Draft to 18 to 24-year-olds.

SABMiller thus becomes London-based The Lounge’s first PR client.

The consultancy, founded in January 2005, has hired former Freud Communications associate director Lisa Jedan to run the PR division, with the title MD of PR.

Jedan’s most recent role was head of UK communications for rock star Bono’s Product Red – her client while she was at Freud.

Prior to that, Jedan spent three years as an associate director at Ketchum, before which she was based in Toronto, working as comms manager for Canada at Molson Breweries.

The Lounge MD James Layfield said existing clients often asked for PR activity around their marketing campaigns, adding: ‘We’ve finally found the person to help lead that charge.’

Miller Genuine Draft brand manager Steve Arkley said the agency had been hired after a four-way pitch to attempt ‘a new approach to tackle the elusive “18-24” market’, including experiential and events-led work.

He added that the campaign would focus on Miller Genuine Draft’s ‘points of difference’, including its American provenance.

The Lounge is the first PR agency to work on the brand since South African brewer SABMiller regained control of UK marketing and distribution from Edinburgh-based brewer Scottish & Newcastle last January.

The Lounge’s other clients include Electronic Arts and Samsung.