This is a huge week for brewing giant Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev, which is celebrating the news it has been named Creative Marketer Of The Year.
Ryan Verschoor, AB InBev head of marketing culture and capabilities, said the company is “humbled and honoured” to accept the award and has curated a series of events across the week to mark the achievement.
The programme kicks off this morning with a Lions Intelligence session entitled AB InBev And Microsoft: Two Titans Of Creative Effectiveness, featuring Marcel Marcondes, AB InBev’s global chief marketing officer, and Kathleen Hall, Microsoft’s corporate vice-president of brand, advertising and research.
“They’ll be talking about the 4Ps — purpose, people, passion and partnership — which is timely given that AB InBev and Microsoft were partners on last year’s Grand Prix-winning Lions campaign, ‘Michelob ULTRA Courtside’, with FCB and the NBA,” Verschoor said.
Throughout the week, marketers from across the company will talk about what creative effectiveness means to AB InBev’s brands. “Then, on Friday, Marcel will talk in detail about the transformational journey we have been on for the last five years,” Verschoor said.
He added that it is important that AB InBev has so many voices at the Lions: “We have 500 brands and 2,000 marketers, so we can’t really turn up in Cannes with one or two brand teams. We have had to build a system of creative effectiveness that works in many different scenarios. One of the things that really excites us is that the 83 Lions we have won in the last three years are related to 17 different brands. It’s that breadth of impact we are celebrating this week.”
Celebrating aside, Verschoor said AB InBev has two other priorities in Cannes this week: “Firstly, it’s a great opportunity to learn. Cannes Lions remains one of the industry’s great learning experiences.
Secondly, it’s a chance to engage with our industry peers. There’s a lot of people we haven’t had a chance to catch up with for three years.”