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Anheuser-Busch InBev exec: Mobile must bring utility on a day-to-day basis

NEW YORK ? An Anheuser-Busch InBev executive at the 2013 MMA Forum said that mobile has a huge opportunity to provide utility and connect with consumers in a one-to-one way to ultimately drive a purchase.

During ?The Power of Mobile Innovation For Brands? closing keynote session, the Anheuser-Busch InBev executive spoke about the opportunities that mobile offers for the beer giant to engage consumers in new ways. Examples of how specific brands have used mobile were also presented.

?We?re taking our consumers from awareness to consideration, favorability, purchase intent, purchase, loyalty and advocacy,? said Winston Wang, global director of strategic innovation at Anheuser-Busch InBev, St. Louis.

?Mobile is with you all the time, and we can communicate in a one-to-one kind of way, moving you along with the right incentive and the right message and into purchase,? he said.

?It?s about knowing your consumer, it?s about having the right data to analyzing that and it?s about creating tailored, high-valued marketing messages. Mobile has a huge premium on being useful. It really has to bring utility on a day-to-day basis.?

Connected consumers
Anheuser-Busch InBev takes two different approaches on how to use technology in the company?s marketing and sales.

The first is around finding which types of technology that drives a consumer to be physically social. The second is around technologies that enhance being physically social, such as a social discovery application.

Relevancy and grasping a consumer?s attention are two of the main reasons that Anheuser-Busch InBev has a strong mobile and digital presence.

Additionally, mobile brings marketing and sales together.

Mobile?s use case
According to Mr. Wang, mobile gives Anheuser-Busch InBev seven things ? utility, content, communication, engagement, event amplification, promotions and loyalty.

Utility is crucial in mobile. Asking a consumer to download an app for a two-week promotion is not useful.

For example, Anheuser-Busch InBev's Stella Artois has an app that lets consumers complete the nine steps in perfecting the perfect beer pour.

?It?s fun, but after you do a few times, how many more times are you going to want to do that?? Mr. Wang said.

?It?s great, it has its place, but how are we going to make it more useful?? he said.

On the other hand, Stella Artois also has a beer finder app that uses augmented reality to find nearby bars, which is an example of a useful app.

According to Mr. Wang, it is important to not only create content but also enable sharable content to help consumers become a part of the conversation and brand.

Using mobile for communication is particularly effective for Anheuser-Busch InBev around events when there is a lot of peer-to-peer conversation.

Touch, gestures, voice command and facial recognition were a few of the technologies that Mr. Wang mentioned that can be used to spur engagement with consumers.

Since Anheuser-Busch InBev is an entertainment brand, mobile is a great way to engage with consumers in a new way.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's Becks beer, for example, is targeted towards young, urban males.

In one campaign, the brand found artists to create interactive, 3D sculptures that were activated via augmented reality. By leveraging augmented reality to create content that consumers can feel in their hand is an example of how technology can be used to build engagement.

Augmented reality also has the opportunity to turn mobile from being used for brand-building to driving sales.

For instance, Budweiser worked with Blippar to create an application that recognized the image on posters that were placed in Walmart stores.

Per Mr. Wang, the posters got engagement, but the potential to integrate into the shopping experience is where these types of campaigns are going.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is also looking at second-screen mobile opportunities since the company has big TV spends.

Bud Light worked with Shazam on a Super Bowl campaign that netted one million downloads of a music remix track by LMFAO in ten minutes.

Bud Light also has its own second-screen app called Bud Light Sports Fan, which lets users check-in to a game and can answer questions and polls.

?We know that you have a tablet and phone in your hand, and you?re tweeting, you?re talking to each other, you?re researching, and there?s a lot of great vendors and solutions out there, and we are really interested in how you tie those things together,? Mr. Wang said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York