Beer bottles emblazoned with the Olympic rings are already rolling off the production line at Anheuser-Busch InBev’s brewery in Belgium in preparation for this summer’s Paris Olympics.
It’s been 100 years since the French capital last hosted the Summer Olympics, and the city is looking to make its mark after the coronavirus pandemic led to the Tokyo Games being held in near-empty stadiums. Now, for the first time, an event that showcases the pinnacle of human athletic achievement will have a beer sponsor.
But in this case, the drink – Corona Cero – doesn’t contain any alcohol.
The world’s largest beer maker has chosen to promote a zero-alcohol product launched in Europe just two years ago to billions of sports fans. AB InBev hopes to use the Paris Games – expected to be one of the biggest marketing events ever for the Olympics – to boost its position in the only real growth segment of the global beer industry.
From Heineken to Guinness and now Corona Cero, the $13 billion brand sees a new generation of health-conscious consumers — many of them young, and Some older people, they want to get away from the drinking culture – they can tap into their wallets.
Distiller masters are constantly working on recipes, trying to replicate the authentic taste and texture. Heineken, Guinness and Budweiser now all offer alcohol-free beers, while hundreds of craft breweries and newer brands are popping up to target the market.
For Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris, the situation is simple: “The consumer has changed.”
Non-alcoholic beers, or beers with an alcohol content of less than 0.5%, account for only a small part of the market, with annual sales of 31.4 million hectoliters dwarfed by sales of 1.93 billion hectoliters of alcoholic beers, according to GlobalData Plc. But since 2018, its compound annual growth rate has been 3.6%, compared with 0.3% for alcoholic beer. In the United States, the proportion of adults aged 18 to 34 who say they drink alcohol has fallen to 62% from 72% in the early 2000s, according to Gallup.
These are numbers that companies cannot ignore, especially Anheuser-Busch InBev. The company has fallen behind and says it will miss its target of 20% low- or no-alcohol beer sales by 2025.
“At many sporting events like the Olympics, the flagship brand tends to be a 0% alcoholic beverage,” said Susie Goldspink, head of no-alcohol and low-alcohol insights at market researcher IWSR. “Part of that is because this is a growing segment. region, but it also helps them control their responsible drinking agenda.”
There are wider benefits for beer companies. Because their non-alcoholic versions often have the same name and label as the original beer, promotions help increase brand awareness and allow businesses to circumvent increasingly tight restrictions on alcohol advertising.
The Olympics are part of a trend to promote zero-alcohol beers through sport, including Heineken 0.0 in Formula One and Diageo Plc’s Guinness 0.0 in the Six Nations rugby championship. Last year, Carlsberg distributed 400,000 cans of French non-alcoholic beer Tourtel Twist at the Tour de France.
In a sign of competition between brands, Carlsberg is positioning Tourtel Twist as the alcohol-free beer of choice for the Paris Olympics.
“We are the official beer of Paris and France,” said Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen. “They are the official beer of the Olympic Movement. At events you will be served by Tutel.
U.S.-based Athletic Brewing Co., which sells only non-alcoholic beverages, said the Olympic sponsorship benefits the entire category.
“Sometimes, to make progress, you need bigger players to help drive visibility,” said John Walker, co-founder of the company.
For beverage companies, there is an urgent need to keep up with changing trends that have sounded the death knell for many businesses. According to the British Beer and Pub Association, more than 7,000 pubs have closed in the UK in the past decade. While alcohol taxes, rents, costs and regulations all play a role, so do changes in drinking habits.
When consumers, especially the social media-driven Millennial and Gen Z demographic groups, want to control their alcohol intake, it’s better to offer a viable and attractive product rather than turning them to a competitor brand, soda or water .
According to GlobalData, Heineken 0.0 is the market leader in the global non-alcoholic beer market. Other big sellers include Japan’s Suntory All-Free and AB InBev’s Brahma 0.0%.
The world’s oldest continuously operating brewery, located in Germany, has been producing alcohol-free beer since the early 1990s. But in 2020, Bavarian-owned Weihenstephan more than doubled its alcohol-free beer production capacity amid growing demand, betting on future growth. Today, its alcohol-free wheat beer accounts for almost 10% of sales and is its third-best-selling product.
But all the promotions in the world can only go so far, if zero-alcohol beer doesn’t do any good.
Until recently, alcohol-free beer was inferior to the original version, leaving drinkers unsatisfied. For brewers, there’s a technical dilemma: how to achieve depth of flavor without alcohol. Do they prevent alcohol from forming in the beer during fermentation, or do they remove it after brewing the full strength version?
Jim Koch, chairman of the Boston Beer Company, which makes Samuel Adams beer, said breakthroughs in flavor have only been possible in recent years, as brewers figured out cryogenic distillation processes. The brewer launched its own non-alcoholic product, Just The Haze, in 2021.
Launched in 2017, Heineken 0.0 is made from water, barley malt, hop extract and yeast, the same ingredients used in Heineken beer. The alcohol is then removed through vacuum distillation, and the natural flavors and aromas are blended back together to bring the taste closer to the original.
“For several years, I refused to start developing Heineken 0.0,” says Heineken Global Cellar Master Willem van Waesberghe. “Because I’ve never had anything good.”
The Olympic Games will open in two months, and the opening ceremony will be held on July 26.
Beyond this, alcohol-free beer on tap is expected to take the next leap in sales, increasing bar sales by making the drink more socially acceptable. This is another technical challenge brewers are grappling with.
“Just like the rosé wines from the South of France are always better than the ones at home,” Weisberg said. “In a pub you like a draft beer and it gives you a real impression.”
——With help from Tiffany Cary.
