Social Norms Marketing for a Future with More Cheers

The 77th UN General Assembly has had me thinking about our world, and how we can address the many overlapping crises we see unfolding. We will need all of us, working together, if we want to reach a Future With More Cheers.

It also made me think back to the conversation I recently had with Georgetown University’s Business For Impact Executive Director Leslie Crutchfield on the “Talking on Tap” podcast’s Smart Drinking episode. There, we discussed some of the Smart Drinking initiatives we’re doing at AB InBev, and some of the ways we’ve been using social norms marketing to drive change.

We make new social norms marketing campaigns every year to influence societal norms and consumer behavior, because how we all behave is what shapes our world. If we can help people make good decisions in one area, we can use those best practices to help them in other places too.

One of the places we’ve started is Smart Drinking, a core pillar of our ESG Strategy and part of how we’re working toward SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. Our goal is to educate customers about responsible alcohol consumption to reduce harmful alcohol consumption by 10%. This is important to me and to all of us at AB InBev, because it affects the long-term health of our whole society.

We’ve already spent over $450 million on social norms marketing campaigns to encourage moderation, but it’s not just about investment. It’s also important for us to know our strategies are working, which is why we teamed up with Georgetown Business for Impact. They took a close look at our projects and their results, offering guidance and helping us hone our social norms marketing strategies. Their insights made our work better, and we’ve since been able to start extending it to other areas – like COVID vaccination – as well.

I think the key takeaways we talked about in this episode go beyond what we do here – they’re things we should all keep in mind as we think about the future of our world:

1. Set clear goals and stick to them, because everyone’s road will be different.
2. Ask for assistance, and promote collaboration, consider alternative viewpoints, and act consistently.
3. Create connections and maintain them so that the parties concerned can communicate clearly and effectively.

If we can keep learning from each other and working together, I know we will be able to solve the shared problems of our time and create a more sustainable, more just future for us all.