Miller Brewing seals $100m deal with Univision

October 25, 2004 -- Miller Brewing Co. sealed a three-year, $100 million deal with Univision Communications Inc. that covers advertising, marketing, sponsorship and brand integration.

The deal involves ad placements on sports, entertainment and music programming as well as public service announcements about the hazards of drinking.

“This agreement gives us a very real, long-term competitive advantage in connecting with adult Hispanic beer drinkers,” said Luis Altuve, Miller’s director of multicultural marketing. “It’s a very resourceful deal that fits well with our overall effort to compete as an able challenger with the dominant industry leader.”

It is Miller's biggest-ever play in the Hispanic market as well as Univision's largest-ever cross-platform deal. It spans across the broadcast nets Univision and TeleFutura, as well as Univision’s owned TV stations, cable network Galavision, radio networks and stations, and the Univision.com Web site (www.univision.com).

“We are thrilled that Miller has taken such a monumental step in recognizing the importance of advertising to Hispanics in Spanish with Univision and we are excited to be partnering with Miller in the creation of a new level of sponsorship encompassing national and local interests,” said Ron Furman, Univision’s executive vice president of network sales and marketing. “This cross-platform deal -- the largest in Univision’s history -- will give Miller unique exposure and exclusivity among Univision’s industry-leading properties.”

Miller will even get the right to preview primetime novelas and sponsor them in peak beer-selling periods.

The agreement gives exclusive Miller placement in World Cup coverage, including branded programming and spots in pre-game, post-game and half-time coverage, though no spots during the "nonstop" action. It will also sponsor 200 Mexican soccer-league games. For boxing, it will get exclusive sponsorship, on-site signage and branded programming.

Census figures show the number of Americans who describe themselves as Hispanic increased by about 60% from 1990 to 2000. The entire U.S. population increased 13% during the same period.

Also, the nation's Hispanic population is relatively young, with a median age of 26.6 in 2000, according to census data. That compares with the total U.S. population's median age of 35.9.

That's important to brewers because 52% of the nation's beer consumption is by people ages 21 to 34.