…A slew of agencies has filed submissions for the Molson Breweries creative review and Richard Kelly, senior VP strategic marketing, is busy sifting through reels and credentials to establish a list of competitors. Kelly will likely handle the review alone and bring Molson management into it at the shortlist stage. While the process is expected to be informal, speculation has it that Molson is drawing things out till the end of August to milk media coverage. All the better to bolster shareholder interest.

… Frontrunners for the Molson business range from a couple of U.S. agencies to Toronto shops Young & Rubicam and Garneau Wurstlin Philp, both of which employ senior staff with beer experience.

Some observers give Y&R the edge because of a friendship between former Scali McCabe Sloves co-workers Richard Kelly and Y&R managing director and COO Darcia Joseph. Others believe Molson craves the kind of strategic guidance a brand consultancy like GWP can offer.

Several agency heads feel the review has a distinctly Bell Canada ‘smell’ about it, as there have been some indications that Molson has already made up its mind which agency it will choose.

…The decision on the Coca-Cola Canada review of its $20-million-plus media account will be delayed because the company is finding the task much bigger than expected. That means the winning agency will need to hit the ground running to meet the July 1 deadline set by Coke for its new agency to take over the business.

…Unilever Canada will soon be joining the ranks of major advertisers looking to consolidate media planning and buying with one agency, although it has not yet started to review its $40-million-plus media account. Unilever U.S. is expected to follow suit with its massive $700-million business. The Canadian assignment has been with Harrison, Young, Pesonen & Newell for a number of years, while creative agencies Ammirati Puris Lintas, MacLaren McCann, J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather handle planning.

The review could be the nudge that Western Initiative Media and Mindshare – which just happen to be Unilever’s main global media companies – need to make it a three-shop race.