Anheuser-Busch InBev has long used the internal corporate mantra “dream big.” To the outside world, those dreams have seemingly been about disciplined cost management and a mergers and acquisitions strategy that has grown the brewer into the largest beer seller on the planet. There is a long-held perception that financial and operational prowess—not stellar marketing—has keyed the company’s rise in the years after its 2008 formation in the wake of InBev's takeover of U.S.-based Anheuser Busch.

But AB InBev in recent years has put a greater emphasis on creativity—and is now getting credit for that by being named Cannes Lions 2022 Creative Marketer of the Year. The award, announced today, honors the brewer for its body of Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time, as well as “a reputation for producing brave creative and innovative marketing solutions,” according to Cannes.

The owner of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona (outside the U.S.) and various regional brands across the globe amassed 40 Lions at last year’s Cannes Lions—which covered 2020 and 2021—including two Grand Prix, two Titanium, nine Gold, 10 Silver and 17 Bronze.

AB InBev’s creative renaissance began under Miguel Patricio, who held the global chief marketing officer job from 2012 to 2018 before departing to become CEO of Kraft Heinz in 2019, which like AB InBev has ties to Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital. Before Patricio, the brewing giant did not emphasize Cannes, as it continued to wow Wall Street analysts with its balance sheet. (The St. Louis-based U.S.-only predecessor to AB InBev, known as Anheuser-Busch, of course, had a history of breakthrough ads in previous decades.)

But the global company’s mindset began changing after its 2016 $107 billion takeover of SABMiller, creating what executives at the time called the "first truly global beer company." Simply put, there were fewer big regional brewers to gobble up, so AB InBev had to grow via brand-building.

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“After 2016 when we joined SABMiller, I think there was a realization that the growth formula had to change,” Pedro Earp, who succeeded Patrico as global CMO in 2018, said in an interview last week. Because “M&A wouldn’t be a major driver … anymore and we needed to really drive top-line growth”

“We looked at ourselves and said we do good work in marketing but it’s not outstanding creative work,” he added.

So Patrico, and later Earp, put in place several new initiatives meant to bolster creativity. That included DraftLine, an in-house digital agency the brewer launched in 2018 in Colombia and Mexico that has since grown to 12 global offices with 550 employees. 

“The objective there was not at all to substitute for creative agencies but to infuse our core business with creativity,” Earp said. Previously, the brewer “saw that our business was to lead the business and creativity was outsourced to the creative agencies—but creativity applies everywhere.”

Read: Cannes Lions names Microsoft its 2021 Creative Marketer of the Year

DraftLine was behind AB InBev’s “Tienda Cerca,” a delivery service the brewer created for neighborhood shops in Latin America that suffered during COVID-19 for lack of an online presence. The platform involved a free online food and drink delivery platform that extended to some 400,000 corner stores. Cannes recognized the effort with a Grand Prix for Creative eCommerce in 2021.

The brewer’s other 2021 Grand Prix was in the PR category for its “Contract for Change” program created along with FCB for its Michelob Pure Gold organic brew. It involved a pledge to purchase crops from farmers during their three-year transition to organic farming.

AB InBev is now so inspired by creativity awards that it created a Cannes-like internal awards program called the CreativeX Awards. Judges come from the brewer’s Creative Council, which includes people from external agencies and other creative disciplines who rate and discuss the brewer’s creative work. 

AB InBev also formed what it calls the Creative Braintrust to advise brand teams. The group has included people such as Colleen DeCourcy, the former global chief creative officer and president at Wieden+Kennedy; Susan Credle, global chief creative officer and global chair at FCB; and Matthew Bull, a consultant and former chief creative officer at McGarryBowen New York.

The brewer’s marketing department has been behind several critical initiatives during the pandemic. It launched a task force in March 2020 during COVID’s early days that made use of its global scale.

“We saw COVID coming very early because we have a massive operation in China and we have a lot of intelligence from China that this thing would be big and would be serious,” Earp said. “When COVID hit, all the markets basically had the same consumer problems at the same time, which is very rare,” he added, noting the overwhelming safety concern that was top of mind for everyone.

Initiatives included using its alcohol production facilities to make hand sanitizer; the ingredients are similar.

Those “ideas for good” transitioned into “ideas for growth” in the later stages of the pandemic as the brewer sought to help its retail partners through rough times.

That included an effort from Stella Artois called “Rally for Restaurants” that started in Europe and involved selling pre-paid vouchers for consumers to use when shuttered restaurants opened up again. AB InBev matched the value consumers paid.

The brewer in the past five years has increased the contingent it sends to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in the South of France, although COVID has prevented that in the past two summers with the festival canceling in-person programming. The event plans to return to in-person programming June 20-24. While “there is still uncertainty,” Earp said the brewer plans to send a contingent to the event, which it uses for education and also to celebrate and “be out with the team and have some beers.”

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