Cannes Lions honours AB InBev with Creative Marketer of the Year

25 Feb 2022

Cannes Lions has announced that it will honour Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) as this year's Creative Marketer of the Year. The honorary accolade is presented to a marketer that has amassed a body of Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time, and has established a reputation for producing brave creative and innovative marketing solutions.

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Vice president for Marketing in Africa at AB InBev, Bruno Carreira Cosentino said that the accolade was testimony to the brewer’s consistent deliberate efforts to not only create innovative work but to also showcase the strength, diversity and brands across the brewer’s portfolio.

These views were echoed by Vaughan Croeser, marketing director at SAB, whose belief is entrenched in the power of creativity to make a positive impact on society. “Our brands are rich in heritage and we pride ourselves on the quality of our products and also the quality of our marketing teams. I am immensely proud of the role that our talented agency partners play in bringing us the creativity that propels our organization forward. Africa has a strong track record of delivering world-class creativity and we will continue to pursue excellence so that we can delight our consumers for a Future with more cheers”, he said.

Last year’s Cannes Lions awards, which were given for work from 2020/2021, saw AB InBev amass an outstanding haul of 40 Lions; two Grands Prix, two Titanium, nine Gold, 10 Silver and 17 Bronze Lions in total. Over the past few years, some of the standout work has included Budweiser’s ‘TagWords’ in Brazil, Corona's 'The Match of Ages’ in Mexico, Bavaria’s ‘Tienda Cerca’ in Colombia and Michelob Ultra's ‘Contract for Change’ in the US, which won the PR Grand Prix and a further eight Lions including a Titanium.

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Speaking at Cannes Lions Live, 2022 Titanium Lions Jury President Susan Credle, cited the strength of the agency-client relationship as a big theme across the Titanium Lions winners.

Calling out the multiple Lion-winning ‘Contract for Change’, Credle said it “showed a great relationship and trust that you could go for the big idea”. She added that in presenting the piece, the client and creative showed a joy of accomplishment in their big idea that probably most of us would say “it’s crazy we shouldn’t do it”.

Simon Cook, CEO, Lion, said, “What we see time and again at Cannes Lions is that when brands unlock their creative capability and the potential they drive real business growth. AB InBev has shown how creativity can be used as a lever to drive incredible success. Its belief in the power of creative culture and capability has resulted in a body of Lion-winning work and it's a shining example of a brand that is leading the way in creative marketing. We are delighted to be recognising their sustained efforts by honouring them as our Creative Marketer of the Year.”

Speaking about receiving the award Michel Doukeris, AB InBev’s CEO, said, “This remarkable recognition reflects our commitment to harnessing the power of our creative teams and partners from around the world. It has been great to see the creativity of our brands translating into the category and business growth. I’m very proud of our colleagues who always dream big and use creativity to create a future with more cheers.”

The Creative Marketer of the Year award was introduced in 1992, with past recipients including Apple Inc. (2019), Google (2018), Burger King (2017) and Samsung Electronics (2016).

Most recently, in 2021, Microsoft demonstrated that outstanding creativity drives business performance and won multiple Lions at the Festival as a result.

AB InBev will be honoured at the final Awards Show of the Festival on 24 June 2022. Cannes Lions takes place between 20-24 June and will provide an annual forum for the global industry to address the most pressing issues that they and the world are facing today.

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