AB-InBev’s chief marketer in the US departs with no successor

USA | After a tumultuous 2023 for Bud Light, Benoit Garbe, the chief marketing officer of Anheuser-Busch, will resign at the end of the year. He will not be directly replaced. Instead, US chief commercial officer Kyle Norrington will oversee marketing for the country moving forward.

His departure, announced on 16 November, follows the exit of Bud Light’s marketer Alissa Heinerscheid earlier this year.

In a statement, Anheuser-Busch’s CEO, Brendan Whitworth, said the latest executive shakeup would “reduce layers within our organisation and better enable our top commercial leaders to drive our business and legacy forward.”

Bud Light in a fix

The shift to focus on profit follows six months of turmoil for America’s once bestselling beer, which has fallen rapidly from grace following a backlash from conservatives over a social media promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Over the summer, Bud Light has invested in a series of marketing campaigns to return the brand to its place in pop culture as the easy-going beer of choice. Most recently, Anheuser-Busch struck a sponsorship deal with the mixed martial arts firm UFC, reportedly worth more than USD 100 million.

No improvement in Bud Light sales

Bump Williams Consulting, a data firm, which closely followed the plunge in Bud Light sales after the Mulvaney incident in April, has paused its weekly reporting on the beer brand. The reason: “There have been no notable deviations in the trends since the initial descent in April,” the company told Newsweek, a magazine, on 23 November.

Although brands in the AB-InBev portfolio like Michelob Ultra and Busch Light have recovered since their stumble in April, Bud Light's declines have remained consistent in their magnitude.

“Certainly not getting any worse, but also not getting any better,” a spokesperson for Bump Williams commented to Newsweek. The data firm is looking at April 2024 as a potential turning point for any sort of recovery, although it fears that a high percentage of consumers, that have left the brand, have indeed left the brand for good.