Of Course: An Award for Outstanding Creativity In Marketing Is Given to... Anheuser-Busch

Of course. Of course.

It was pretty creative how they drove off 26% of their customer base.

Big props, ladies. Stunning and brave.

CANNES, France--Marketing gone awry recently cost Bud Light its long-held crown as America's bestselling beer.

But the brand's owner, Anheuser-Busch InBev, was here at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity--a lavish annual gathering in the south of France, often called the Oscars of the ad industry--collecting one of the event's highest honors: Creative Marketer of the Year.

A collision this spring between Bud Light's marketing hub in Manhattan and many of its loyal drinkers across middle America resulted in a case study in how not to market through the culture wars. A consumer and celebrity backlash against a Bud Light social-media promotion with the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney snowballed into a boycott and plummeting sales. The uproar prompted AB InBev to put on leave two marketing executives who oversaw the promotion, leading to more criticism.

In the wake of that controversy, across the Atlantic on Monday, AB InBev's global chief marketing officer, Marcel Marcondes, took to the Cannes Lions' main stage to give the event's opening seminar. The session was described in programming notes as a talk in part about AB InBev's "relentless focus on connecting with consumers in meaningful ways." Marcondes also touched briefly on the Bud Light situation stateside.

"In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it's an important wake-up call to all of us marketers, for us to be very humble," Marcondes said.

AB InBev is "really reminding ourselves of what we should do best every day, which is to really understand our customers, which is to really celebrate and appreciate every customer that loves our brands, but in a way that can make them be together, not apart," he said. The words echoed comments by Brendan Whitworth, chief executive of AB InBev's North American business, made immediately following the backlash in April.

...

Organizers of the festival and AB InBev weren't available Monday to comment.

Tranheuser-Busch released a new ad for Bud Light.

The secret theme seems to be... normalcy. And heterosexuality.

And lowbrow, "fratty" humor.

posted by Ace at 04:28 PM

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