AB InBev crowdsources future responsible drinking drives
AB InBev is using crowdsourced insights from governments, private sectors, media experts and NGOs to shape future responsible drinking marketing initiatives as part of a wider drive to extend the reach of its efforts to new audiences.
The ideas are being gleaned from the brewer’s first “Well-Being and Responsibility Forum”, held yesterday (17 September), to tackle challenges around promoting four main areas; Well-being and responsibility, road safety and drink-driving prevention, underage-drinking prevention and excessive-drinking prevention.
Alcohol brands have come under repeated fire in recent years for not doing enough to curb alcohol misuse and AB InBev says the peer-to-peer effort is about improving the effectiveness of its own promotions.
Elsewhere, the Budweiser owner has formed a partnership with the Alcohol Education Trust to take its responsible drinking marketing to parents and schools across the UK. The charity, which offers advice to parents on how to tackle under-age drinking, will work with the brewer to offer a series of events alongside a direct marketing campaign targeting parents and teachers.
The tie-up will be focused in the north east of England after research it commissioned revealed parents in the region are among the least likely to have spoken with their child about alcohol. Additionally, the partnership will support AB InBev’s Family Talk UK portal – an online community developed with Mumsnet.
Emma Reynolds, director of corporate affairs at AB InBev UK, says: “We know that parents have a huge influence on their children, and we hope through [our partnership with the Alcohol Education Trust] to help more parents speak to their children about responsible drinking. At a global level, we were also very excited to hold our first online forum, bringing together people from a range of backgrounds to talk about what more can be done to promote responsible drinking and well-being.
The burst of activity aims to accelerate AB In Bev’s efforts to hit six responsible drinking targets such as reaching 500 million legal-age consumers through its marketing by 2014. Last year, it said it was on track to reach at least 100 million adults through responsible drinking programmes before the deadline.
