More bad news for Bud Light, yet a bit of better news for parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev..First the bad: After being on a downward spiral since its disastrous marketing hook-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light experienced its worst weekly sales drop for the week ending June 10..The New York Post reports sales dropped by a whopping 26.8%, according to the latest data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ..That eclipses the 24.4% drop the week before and was worse than the previous largest drop of 25.7% during the week ended May 20..Other brands in the Anheuser-Busch stable also saw continuing sales declines in the week ended June 10..According to the data, sales of Budweiser dropped 10% compared to sliding 7.8% the previous week, while Natural Light was down 2.3% compared to a 1% decline. Michelob Ultra, the No. 3 beer in the US, was down 2.4%..“This was a tough week for Bud Light and other beer brands” owned by Anheuser-Busch, said Bump Williams, head of the eponymous consulting firm, reports The Post..To date, the sales declines cost Anheuser-Busch InBev US$20 billion..Regardless, Bud Light remains the No. 1 beer brand and has a “several hundred million-dollar advantage” over Modelo Especial on a year-to-date basis, Williams told The Post..Modelo Especial, also an Anheuser-Busch brand, had a 5.7% increase year-over-year, but for it to overtake Bud Light, declines for the latter would need to continue and increases for Modelo to continue until the end of the year. .Williams predicts it’s “unlikely” Modelo will become America’s No. 1 brand on a 52-week basis, saying, “In some instances, the trends for a particular brand may be healthy in some local areas across the country and worse in others.” .Still, data shows what started as a backlash against Bud Light and its sister brands primarily in mostly red states has shifted to blue states..Now, the good news, or some may say, surprising news..The top marketing executive for Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch InBev received an award for “creative marketer of the year” at the “Oscars for the advertising industry” despite the beer brand’s disastrous partnership with Mulvaney, reports The Post..Marcel Marcondes told advertising peers at the Cannes Lions marketing conference in France on Monday the Mulvaney saga served as a “wake-up call” for the industry, but stopped short offering an apology..“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..Marcondes, who has been at AB InBev for almost two decades, was named the winner of the annual award before the Mulvaney controversy erupted, though there were whispers it would have been best for him to decline the prize in light of the boycott, according to The Wall Street Journal..“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,” reports The Wall Street Journal..“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.” .Brendan Whitworth, who heads AB InBev’s US operations said the company is launching a new ad campaign for Bud Light, with the slogan “easy to drink, easy to enjoy.”
More bad news for Bud Light, yet a bit of better news for parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev..First the bad: After being on a downward spiral since its disastrous marketing hook-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light experienced its worst weekly sales drop for the week ending June 10..The New York Post reports sales dropped by a whopping 26.8%, according to the latest data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ..That eclipses the 24.4% drop the week before and was worse than the previous largest drop of 25.7% during the week ended May 20..Other brands in the Anheuser-Busch stable also saw continuing sales declines in the week ended June 10..According to the data, sales of Budweiser dropped 10% compared to sliding 7.8% the previous week, while Natural Light was down 2.3% compared to a 1% decline. Michelob Ultra, the No. 3 beer in the US, was down 2.4%..“This was a tough week for Bud Light and other beer brands” owned by Anheuser-Busch, said Bump Williams, head of the eponymous consulting firm, reports The Post..To date, the sales declines cost Anheuser-Busch InBev US$20 billion..Regardless, Bud Light remains the No. 1 beer brand and has a “several hundred million-dollar advantage” over Modelo Especial on a year-to-date basis, Williams told The Post..Modelo Especial, also an Anheuser-Busch brand, had a 5.7% increase year-over-year, but for it to overtake Bud Light, declines for the latter would need to continue and increases for Modelo to continue until the end of the year. .Williams predicts it’s “unlikely” Modelo will become America’s No. 1 brand on a 52-week basis, saying, “In some instances, the trends for a particular brand may be healthy in some local areas across the country and worse in others.” .Still, data shows what started as a backlash against Bud Light and its sister brands primarily in mostly red states has shifted to blue states..Now, the good news, or some may say, surprising news..The top marketing executive for Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch InBev received an award for “creative marketer of the year” at the “Oscars for the advertising industry” despite the beer brand’s disastrous partnership with Mulvaney, reports The Post..Marcel Marcondes told advertising peers at the Cannes Lions marketing conference in France on Monday the Mulvaney saga served as a “wake-up call” for the industry, but stopped short offering an apology..“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..Marcondes, who has been at AB InBev for almost two decades, was named the winner of the annual award before the Mulvaney controversy erupted, though there were whispers it would have been best for him to decline the prize in light of the boycott, according to The Wall Street Journal..“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,” reports The Wall Street Journal..“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.” .Brendan Whitworth, who heads AB InBev’s US operations said the company is launching a new ad campaign for Bud Light, with the slogan “easy to drink, easy to enjoy.”
