By Patrick Coffee
The world's largest brewer would like to make a toast -- to its own biggest brands.
Anheuser-Busch InBev on Tuesday reported organic volume growth of 0.8% in the first quarter of the year, the first such increase since early 2023, defying downward trends in alcohol consumption. Beer volume in particular, which excludes AB InBev products like ready-to-drink cocktails, also snapped a lengthy losing streak with a gain of 1.2% driven in large part by big gains in South and Central America.
The company also attributed its tentative turnaround to an increased focus on premium beers and beer alternatives, along with a strategic pivot toward promoting the 50 most popular names in its 500-strong global brand portfolio, rather than continuing to snap up other breweries around the world, according to Global Chief Marketing Officer Marcel Marcondes.
"It is a conscious, intentional change, moving from an inorganic growth algorithm into an organic growth algorithm," Marcondes said.
AB InBev on Wednesday was also named marketer of the year for the third time by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the ad industry's annual awards festival on the French Riviera, which cited the three-year shift in its brand marketing strategy.
But the mission isn't complete, executives acknowledge. Even as North American revenue grew 0.9% in the past quarter, the company said Tuesday, sales in the region fell 3.1% by volume.
And acquisitions are still likely to play a key role. The company in February spent around $490 million to acquire a majority stake in BeatBox, a hard-punch brand founded in 2011 and popular with younger drinkers.
Making up for Bud and Bud Light
AB InBev has for years worked to counter sales declines among its best-known brands. Bud Light, once the country's bestselling beer, lost nearly half of its market share over the past three years in a slide facilitated by the boycott over a 2023 marketing effort featuring the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
U.S. sales of the company's flagship Budweiser brand meanwhile have declined consistently for more than three decades.
Growth in sales of Busch Light and Michelob Ultra have made up for these declines, said Marcondes. Those two brands combined account for 13.9% of U.S. market share, compared with 11.8% for Bud and Bud Light together, according to Nielsen. Michelob Ultra last year surpassed Constellation Brands' Modelo Especial to become the top-selling beer in the U.S. by volume, though Modelo retains the crown when measured in total dollars.
Michelob Ultra has benefited from AB InBev's consistent positioning of the brand as part of a healthy, active lifestyle, Marcondes said. But the company also now spends more money marketing Michelob Ultra in the U.S. than any other product, he said.
AB InBev is playing favorites elsewhere too. It has moved over the past three years from actively marketing 15 to 20 brands in each country or zone to zeroing in on three to five so-called "megabrands," chosen through a combination of sales volume and growth rates. Those brands now account for around 70% of the company's marketing budget, up from 50% in 2021, and generate some 60% of sales, Marcondes said.
The company has meanwhile stopped producing 25% of the drink brands that were in its portfolio in 2021, including U.S. sparkling beverage brands Bon and Viv, Neon Burst and Natural Light Seltzer; the Brazilian lager Skol Hops; and Quilmes Bock, a dark lager sold in Argentina.
How do you do, fellow kids?
Global alcohol consumption remains in slow decline.
Seventy-seven percent of legal drinking age respondents surveyed last September by IWSR, a beverage industry data firm, said they'd consumed alcohol over the previous six months, down from 78% in 2023. Among Gen Z consumers, however, the total grew over the same period to 74% from 72%.
"What we see is that the younger consumers, they are drinking. They're just drinking differently," said Marcondes. "25 is the new 21. People are taking longer to take bigger responsibilities in life. This involves getting married, getting a big job or even drinking."
The 25-to-40 set is now AB InBev's fastest-growing demographic, and the company caters to them with four so-called "balanced choices" categories including active-lifestyle beers like Michelob Ultra as well as nonalcoholic beers, flavored beers and beer alternatives, such as ready-to-drink cocktails.
RTD, which includes the canned cocktail brand Cutwater, was the only category to grow for the company in terms of both volume and revenue in the U.S. last year.
Younger people are more likely to look for beer alternatives and to alternate between alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages in order to socialize longer, said Marcondes. Many are also part of the 20% to 30% of global consumers that AB InBev calls "sweet seekers," or those attracted to beverages like college favorite Busch Light Apple and Flying Fish, a lemon-tinged brew popular in international markets, according to Marcondes.
Beer and alcohol-free beer comprised 50.1% of worldwide "alcohol" sales last year, up from 46.8% in 2019, and will continue to expand their share this year, according to IWSR.
Beer, games and yoga
The company also moved more of its $7 billion-plus sales and marketing budget away from TV-heavy media buys toward the kind of large-scale events it calls megaplatforms, such as this year's Winter Olympics and the coming FIFA World Cup, said Marcondes.
Traditional campaigns average around 1.3 times return on investment, or $1.30 for each dollar spent, while event-based efforts average greater than two times total spend, he said.
AB InBev's nonalcoholic Corona Cero was the Olympic Games' first beer sponsor at this year's Winter Games, where the athletes' village included a Corona lounge offering yoga and relaxation sessions along with the brew.
A number of athletes who weren't paid by AB InBev spontaneously posted images on their social media profiles holding a Corona, Marcondes said. Corona and Corona Cero accounted for 60% of all beverages sold in Olympic venues during the events, AB InBev said as it reported its earnings on Tuesday.
This focus on event-based marketing has allowed AB InBev to reinvest about half of the millions of dollars that it would have spent on production costs for traditional ad campaigns into other marketing efforts like a partnership with Live Nation U.K., he said.
AB InBev is taking a victory lap after receiving the Cannes recognition amid better-than-expected earnings and growth. It foresees more sales bumps from this year's World Cup, along with its recently announced marketing deal with Netflix and its deal to replace Heineken as the official sponsor of Champions League soccer from 2027 to 2033.
Last week it released Budweiser's global campaign tied to the World Cup, called "Let It Pour."
The company acknowledges the challenges still ahead.
"Our bible here is sustainable growth creation," said Marcondes. "We are aware of the fact that there's still much more to be done."
Write to Patrick Coffee at patrick.coffee@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2026 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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