M2 and Marketel have handled media buying for Labatt since 2000 and 2003 respectively.

Labatt took its media planning in-house in 2002. It had been with the now-defunct Ammirati Puris, a move that contributed to the downfall of that agency.

When it moved the Quebec media planning in-house in 2003, Shelley Smit, then director of media at Labatt in Toronto told PubZone, "We strongly believe that close integration of media and strategic brand planning delivers more meaningful consumer connections."

It was felt at that time that the integration with brand planning would allow the media strategists to go through the creative to see how best to spend media dollars effectively. And with brands requiring various amounts of flexibility, the in-house team could react quickly to market changes.

However, new thinking has brought about the change.

"While we will continue to maintain the expertise of media strategists within Labatt, we're shifting our media planning to Marketel and M2 as we evolve Labatt's internal marketing services team towards better facilitation and integration of third-party partners and brand teams as well as increasing our focus on digital marketing," says Julija Hunter, Labatt's national manager, corporate affairs.

"Labatt conducted a media buying agency review last year," Hunter says. "The RFP included development of brand media strategy, media planning performance definitions and agency research tools (to maximize the effectiveness of media planning, buying, modeling), among other elements and evaluation criteria. M2 and Marketel's strong response and their beer category expertise earned them agency--of-record status. We look forward to developing dynamic media planning strategies and leveraging their innovative tools and energetic team."

Both agencies are expected to be hiring.