MillerCoors, the mega-brewer of many popular American domestic beer brands, has unveiled their game plan for “the Big Game” and it’s short and sweet — and, potentially brilliant.

In a seemingly curious move, MillerCoors has opted to not go the traditional “big game/big commercial” path to promote the Miller High Life brand. Rather, MillerCoors, in conjunction with their agency, Saatchi & Saatchi NYC, have opted to go with a 1 second ad spot that will run via local networks/markets (due to competitor Anheuser-Busch’s position as official game sponsor for 2009) and have even created a Web site to house the spot and show outtakes.

A full take on the campaign from MillerCoors’ perspective can be found over @ BizJournals.com, so I won’t get into the back-story of the campaign and the economies therein. What I’m concerned with is the impact; will MillerCoors receive more for their 1 second local buys and Web companion than the $3M A-B is spending for their 30-second national spot? To that end, is the very existence of the 1 second ad just a conduit to the Web campaign site where the brand messaging — Miller High Life is a great value (or, as MHL’s Sr. brand guy, Ken Oglesby is quoted in the BizJournal article as saying “…Miller High Life is common sense in a bottle.”)- is re-enforced? More succinctly, are they using this once-heralded marriage of Big Game/Big TV Spot to point to the Web, where they can get more bang for the buck, analytically speaking?

So, we have a 1 second ad and a dedicated Web site to talk about the ad: a campaign about a campaign. Because this is a blog and I am allowed to draw conclusions, I would argue this is not about economies of scale. To me, it’s about results and integrating messaging across medias to achieve messaging results. What is A-B success metrics for their campaign other than bragging rights?

Clearly, MillerCoors is not choosing to play king of the hill and, most likely, it’s cost prohibitive for the MHL brand to even get into the battle, so, they’re building another hill. As a bonus, their hill can track visitors.