Anheuser-Busch to boost marketing spending in 2008

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos., the country’s biggest brewer, will boost its total media spending by 10 percent this year, the company said in a press release Thursday.

The company plans to raise its spending on digital media even more rapidly, by 55 percent this year, Chief Executive August A. Busch IV told analysts at a conference Thursday in Boca Raton, Fl. 

The company also said its beer sales to retailers rose 1.9 percent through mid-February. Sales to retailers are seen as key indicators of demand for A-B beers among drinkers.

Busch also said the company would announce a change soon in its exclusivity incentive for wholesalers — a longstanding program originally designed to entice beer distributors to focus only on Anheuser-Busch brands. He said its current configuration may have worked against Anheuser-Busch, because competing wholesalers were able to add higher-margin brands. He did not give details of the change, however.