Correction: This piece has been updated to reflect the correct owner of the Not Your Father's Root Beer brand.
Dive Brief:
- Anheuser-Busch InBev has launched new brand platform Best Damn Brewing Co. and its first product, Best Damn Root Beer, AB InBev's first hard root beer.
- In support of this launch, Best Damn Brewing will make use of various iconic media assets from AB InBev, including a 70-foot Jumbotron in Times Square, and the company's vast sports property portfolio, which includes partnerships with more than 80 professional teams, stadiums, and venues.
- "We’ve seen a growing consumer interest in sweeter taste profiles, and we jumped at the opportunity to brew an easy-drinking, hard root beer," Rashmi Patel, vice president of Share of Throat, Anheuser-Busch, said in a news release.
Dive Insight:
With this new brand, AB InBev enters the world of hard root beer with competition like craft brew Not Your Father's Root Beer, owned by Small Town Brewery. Pabst holds a stake in Not Your Father's Root Beer. This beverage segment can appeal to consumers who aren't fans of traditional beer or the assortment of flavors concocted by craft brewers or who are looking to inject a bit of nostalgia into their drinking routine.
This launch also helps AB InBev diversify its portfolio as it struggles with a decline in domestic and light beers. The company has employed various marketing techniques to work directly with those brands but has also looked outward and acquired craft brewers to capitalize on the burgeoning craft beer industry in the U.S.
AB InBev is still in the midst of appealing to regulators for the approval of its takeover of SABMiller.