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Female Millennial Media Opps: AB InBev announces biggest Super Bowl campaign yet amid new strategy incentives (Score 89)

Update: In order to continue combating the decreasing popularity of beer among millennials (more below), Bullish. All content will steer clear of political themes, according to AB InBev.

As the title of this article states, the company has never before launched such a big Super Bowl initiative. It will feature seven new products and also consist of local outdoor content.

Feel free to view top brands' recent ad spend, per here.

The company has begun to implement a brand overhaul, since the beer industry is struggling so much against the rising popularity of wine and spirits. Sellers should keep an eye on millennial (female skew) targeted revenue throughout all channels. Please view more details on these shifts below.

Agency & martech readers should also continue reaching out to AB InBev's 360i, LLC / Vizeum.

Below was originally published on 12/20/18:

You've probably heard by now that millennials prefer wine and sprits over beer and this preference has drastically hurt the sales of beer giants like InBev. (In Q3, Budweiser lost 0.35 percentage points of the total market share, while Bud Light lost 0.9 percentage points.) But AB InBev isn't going down without a fight. 

To try and combat these struggles, CEO Carlos Brito announced a new commercial strategy in the recent Q3 earnings call. It consists of five pillars:

1. Building relevant brands that create authentic connections and inspire consumer loyalty
2. Leading trade up to higher-end offerings
3. Stabilizing the performance of its mainstream lager brands, which are an “entry point” to the beer category for new consumers
4. Gaining share of the beyond beer segment
5. Leading category growth through innovation

With these five focuses, you can imagine AB InBev is trying to shift its marketing strategy. We already reported on its partnerships with the MLB and NBA to tap into modern culture and appeal to millennials. Now, it's trying to increase engagement among women.

Molly Hayes, global director of innovation insights, attended 2018's The Market Research Event and saidthe company conducted research "to understand how the female audience views and acts in the beer sector." This research will result in a strategy consisting of four main parts:

1. Addressing issues that have hindered female engagement with the beer sector (AB InBev already released 25 pilot projects in 15 different countries to address these issues)
2. Moving advertising away from "the largely male (and sometimes intimidating) culture that often surrounds beer"
3. Using more than just "the sweeter stuff" typically associated with women
4. Realizing women (and men) don't want to be educated on the alcohol category

Note, however, that the millennial and female shifts have not resulted in spend increases. AB InBev's continued struggles, instead, have resulted in cost cutting initiatives like laying off brewery workers and decreasing marketing.

Of course, as the megahouse that it is, AB InBev still has quite a hefty marketing budget to try and secure revenue from. It runs through all channels - TV, digital, out-of-home, print, radio, earned media, social media, cause marketing (donating to the American Red Cross, e.g.) experiential and sponsorship - but TV, out-of-home and digital make up the bulk.

Therefore, sellers with an omni-channel strategy led by TV, out-of-home and digital, as well as sellers with high reach high reach among females and millennials, will have the advantage securing revenue. Its top spending periods vary year-to-year, so reach out year round instead.

Please view national TV spend, courtesy of here.

Agency & martech readers -- we put AB InBev on the 360i, LLC / Vizeum. Expect those agencies among your competition.