Beer and entertainment go hand-in-hand. For AB InBev's marketers, however, the challenge is in inverting the formula so that the entertainment spurs audiences to drink – and more importantly, buy – their beers. For the brewer responsible for America's Budweiser, Belgium's Stella Artois, Nigeria's Hero, and India's Haywards 5000 among many others, entertainment has become an axiom of its communications strategy. The mantra, said Jonny Sabbath, the mega-brewer's head of entertainment, is to "think like a marketer, act like a producer."
For Sabbath, addressing an audience at the Cannes Lions Festival, this means "less interrupting and more attracting". The ideal...