A-B InBev VP/Partnerships, Beer Culture & Community Nick Kelly and Navigate Research President Jeff Nelson explained during the final installment of the SBJ: The Road Ahead Virtual Series how their companies worked together over the last six months to establish A-B’s sponsorship strategy going forward. Nelson said that he and his colleagues did not take long to understand how much the pandemic would impact them. “We quickly realized that the way we move our product, both at retail and ultimately at the live events, will forever change,” he said. “The ability for draft beer to be available for consumers in the format it is today, the congregations in the near term, was no longer there.” He added that A-B typically sells $40M-50M worth of beer in a stadium annually, but that figure will drop to $5-10M this year. Kelly said that conversations with partners, particularly in MLB, became more challenging once they learned exactly how the season would be impacted. “Basically cash is king,” he said. “And so having that conversation of, ‘Hey, I want to be here in the long term, but I need some help today.’ It is just a tough conversation to have. And as good as friends as you can be with anybody, they have the opposite challenge, which is how much can you get us today so we can make sure we as a company are here long term? So, we both had the same challenges, opposite directions.”
GETTING CREATIVE: Nelson suggested that teams should turn to brands that haven’t previously been active in sponsorship, and highlighted one industry in particular. "The tech space is absolutely flush, still, with cash and with brands that need a lot of exposure, need a lot of awareness,” Nelson said. “This is a perfect moment to go out and get a new partner and give them a valuable splashy asset during a time when people are craving sports.” As for how A-B’s portfolio will evolve in the next year as a result of the pandemic, Kelly confirmed that major changes are coming. “We're going to have some very challenging conversations over the next 12 months to basically reset our portfolio,” Kelly said. “It won't look like it looks today. We won't have the same league partners, we won't have the same team partners.”
