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AB chief commercial officer Kyle Norrington began his fireside chat at Beer Insights Spring Conference with an extended rap on how AB achieved "momentum" in US (depletions up 0.3%, gaining share, revs up 1% in Q1, including RTDs). "Not to get too philosophical" but that's not "very easy to get," Kyle said. "And it takes a lot of time." He's been in the US for nearly 5 yrs, he pointed out, and ceo Brendan Whitworth and chief sales officer Simon Wuestenberg have similar tenures in their current roles. "We've evolved our approach quite a bit" towards a strategy that "we've really been sticking to" and which AB often sums up as "simplicity, focus and consistency." That approach "birthed this idea of megabrands" and also "megaplatforms," which Kyle called "an incredibly simple idea" for its system to "really embrace&hellip;. It lets us do less things" and "put more money, more effort behind those things, but we need to expect extraordinary results." Kyle pointed to usual suspects: Ultra "number one brand" and "fastest growing," Busch Light, the 2d fastest growing brand "with tons of headroom" and Cutwater, a brand "that's exploded in the past couple of years." Nutrl is now the #4 seltzer and still growing double digits. Then too, Kyle roped in craft: "We really streamlined our craft portfolio. And guess what? We're winning share with that portfolio now."Improved Approach to Innovation Too With Busch Light Apple and Mich Ultra Zero AB has grown "extremely intentional" and arrived at brands like Busch Light Apple, which was a top 10 brand for 4 weeks ("hit #9 1 week," noted Kyle) and Mich Ultra Zero, #1 innovation last year and now #1 non-alcoholic beer, said Kyle. Why did Busch Light Apple reach such heights: AB was "very prescriptive" about what it wanted to happen with launch and "wholesalers executed flawlessly this year."Importance of On Premise; "The Beating Heart of the Category"; 50% of Spend AB is focusing more attention to on-premise these days and not just because of World Cup. Kyle started selling beer bar-to-bar 26 yrs ago and from the beginning, "I knew&hellip; this is where brands are built," said Kyle. It's "the beating heart of the category." While only 10-20% of category volume, depending on mkt, it's "usually it's about 50% of the spend." So that "puts the onus on us to make sure that we&#39;re bringing the right experience to the on-premise." With World Cup around the corner, we are betting big in this space, because that's where consumers are betting with their wallet."Kyle's World Cup Team; Expected Boosts; Lessons from Global This yr's World Cup is the "biggest sporting event in human history" with over 5 mil attending and more than double the total number of viewers (across all games) as Super Bowl. So it's huge focus for AB in US and ABI globally. Kyle has a separate "World Cup Team" and for 2 yrs, "their only job is the World Cup plan." Kyle declined to put a number on expected boost, but he did mention people talking about "6 to 10 percent" boost in host cities, adding "you know we're going to be doing everything we can to make it 11 or 12 or whatever we can, right?"Asked about benefits of having global team's experience and resources to draw on, Kyle said he is able to talk to people who"activate a platform like soccer every day 365." So for example, he talked to cmo of Brazil to find out "what they did and lessons learned." He also credited co's "access to information." But most importantly, if ABI was "not a strong company like we are" globally, "I'm not sure we'd be able to invest the way we do here in the US."

Kyle's Greatest Hits; Consistency, Focus, Simplicity, Megabrands, Megaplatforms Driving AB Momentum

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