Anheuser-Busch execs ‘held closed-door meeting with beer distributors where they told them they will spend heavily on Bud Light’ and ‘any marketing will be heavily screened before it goes public’ following Dylan Mulvaney backlash
- Bosses held a closed-door meeting with distributors in Washington DC this week where they laid out plans going forward
- The number of people ordering Bud Lights at bars and restaurants across the country have plummeted
Anheuser-Busch executives have promised beer distributors that going forward, marketing will be heavily screened following Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney backlash.
Bosses held a closed-door meeting with distributors in Washington DC this week where they laid out future plans- and promised to ‘spend heavily’ on Bud Light to salvage its public image, according to reports.
Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said that spending on the brand ‘fell off a cliff last year,’ but Anheuser-Busch are promising to rectify the situation, New York Post reports.
Bud Light sales have fallen dramatically since transgender influencer Mulvaney’s first post with the brand on April 1 – but a fresh marketing push is set to begin this week.
A big push by Bud Light for the NFL draft is expected in a bid to revive the brand in the coming days, Steinman said.
Mulvaney, 26, announced the partnership in a series of videos posted to social media at the start of April 2023
On top of the marketing blitz, executives working for Bud Light will also go through a more rigorous screening process, according to one Northeast-based beer distributor who spoke to NYP.
This comes after the number of people ordering Bud Lights at bars and restaurants across the country have plummeted in the weeks following the company’s partnering with Dylan Mulvaney.
Between early to mid-April, Bud Light’s pours were down 6 percent at 3,000 locations, according to research by tech company BeerBoard.
In comparison, between March 18 to April 1 – the two weeks before the transgender influencer partnered with the beer company – Bud Light had actually outperformed in its category by 15 percent.
On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video of herself cracking open a Bud Light on her Instagram page. She showed off a can with her face on it that Bud Light sent her – one of many corporate freebies she gets and shares with her millions of followers.
In the six days that followed, Anheuser-Busch lost more than $6billion in market capitalization.
According to BeerBoard’s data, Bud Light has dropped from third to fourth in overall rate of sales during April 2 to April 15.
Bud Light has long been America’s best-selling beer. But its US sales are down 2 percent so far this year, part of a long-running decline as younger consumers flock to sparking seltzers and other drinks, according to Bump Williams Consulting.
Those sales declines accelerated rapidly in April. In the week ending April 15, Bud Light’s sales dropped 17 percent compared to the same week a year ago.
Mulvaney was sent a personalized beer can to mark 365 days since she transitioned. Mulvaney documented her journey on TikTok and gained millions of online followers
Meanwhile, rivals Miller Lite and Coors Lite both saw their sales jump more than 17 percent.
Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney angered some customers and hurt sales, while the brand´s lack of support for the influencer infuriated the very people it was trying to reach.
Three days after Mulvaney´s post, Kid Rock posted a video of himself shooting cases of Bud Light. Shares of Bud Light´s parent, AB InBev, temporarily plunged and the company issued a terse statement in response to the controversy.
This week, Anheuser-Busch – AB InBev´s U.S. subsidiary – confirmed that Alissa Heinerscheid, its vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake, are taking a leave of absence.
The company won´t say when they will return or whether they´re being paid.
Whitworth issued a public statement two weeks into the controversy
