Anheuser-Busch Head of U.S. Sports Marketing & Sponsorships Matt Davis joins Yahoo Finance Live to weigh on investing in pickleball and Netflix ads, the upcoming World Cup, and Super Bowl advertising.
Video Transcript
– Tom Brady, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Gary Vaynerchuk, Marc Lasry, and Budweiser. How’s that for a six pack? Anheuser-Busch joining the sports and business icons and buying a Major League pickleball team, the first Fortune 500 company to buy a team. Let’s talk about it with Matt Davis, Anheuser-Busch, head of US sports marketing sponsorships.
Matt, great to have you here, my man. Very exciting– fastest growing sport in the country by far. What’s the business play, though? Why buy a team and not just sponsor it?
MATT DAVIS: Yeah, it’s a great, great question. Appreciate you having me. I’m excited to be here and talk about it. The play for us has always been the same. We want to meet fans where they are and drive excitement with our brands.
What we found with Major League pickleball is that we can bring more to the table than what a traditional sponsorship would afford. We can help them with scale, with connecting with consumers, with finding ways to expand the reach of pickleball to those fans maybe that haven’t been approached to it previously and in doing so, really drive excitement inside of the world of pickleball, but the larger ecosystem of sports, that we’ve been dominant in for the past several decades. And so for us, it was an amazing opportunity to do something that was bigger and really become a new driver of innovation as we look to new and emerging sports, moving forward.
– And that something near and dear to my heart, the World Cup. And we know that Budweiser is the official beer sponsor for it. But talk about how you’re navigating, this trying to sell beer in a place where you can’t advertise, that where there’s sort of limited opportunities for fans to even drink during the matches.
MATT DAVIS: Yeah, sure, we’ve been working very closely with those on the ground to make sure that we can do so in ways that are complimentary to the fan experience overall. But really for us, the big opportunity for the World Cup is all of the fan bases across the entire globe. How can we be as relevant as possible for all of those in Brazil or America or Belgium to really take and amplify the teams that they love and make them tangible for them in their home countries?
– But in Qatar, and we’re less than two weeks out, in Qatar, what are your expectations as far as consumption, versus recent World Cups? And can you talk about some of the complications that Rochelle was alluding to in terms of selling it, where you sell it, how you market it, and even how you ship it to Qatar?
MATT DAVIS: Sure. There’s definitely been some additional paths for us to work through. But every piece of the organization has been working with us to make sure we do so in ways that are respective– respectful of their current processes, as well as where we need to achieve as a business. There’s places inside the stadium that have been designated as areas that we have product, as well as certain hotels.
And then also, one of our main products, Budweiser Zero, which has a non-alcoholic component for Budweiser flagship, is also more available than the other brands across stadiums and the market, as well as airlines. So it’s a huge opportunity for us to also get a product that is massive for us globally and a big bet in front of more consumers.
– And so England fans will be doing their part to guzzle as much beer as they can. But I also want to talk about your advertising on Netflix, obviously Netflix adding its ad supported tier. And you’re going to be the first to have a beer spot with this new tier. Tell us about that and how this really plays into to your growth story.
MATT DAVIS: Sure. I think it’s a similar strategy as what you see with us doing with Major League pickleball. At the end of the day, we’re an advertiser. But the average consumer and the average fans today don’t want to be interrupted in how they engage their entertainment. And so for us, it’s how can we be more involved in the places that they want to seek out and gain content and integrating ad-complementary benefits to the places they’re already consuming entertainment?
Netflix was an amazing example of doing that. They have a huge fan base of people that come to the platform on a regular basis. And for us to be able to integrate into that platform in a way that we hope to continuously evolve to be complementary to the entertainment, as opposed to just an interruption, is really the game plan for us holistically.
– And there’s also the Super Bowl. And for as long as I can remember, Anheuser-Busch has been the face of commercials for the Super Bowl. This is the first time that I can recall where you’re not the exclusive beer advertisers, whether it’s WhatsApp or Budweiser, which is a legend, and the Clydesdales. I mean, all the commercials are, essentially, yours that are iconic. How does that indicate the move forward for Anheuser-Busch in terms of your ad spend and marketing?
MATT DAVIS: Yeah, it’s a great question. It’s one we’ve gotten a few times now. The Super Bowl will still be a massive opportunity for us and one that we’re going to be dominating on. We’re still going to be the biggest beer spender and one of the biggest spenders inside of the Super Bowl across the entire portfolio. So you’ll still see our brands on game day.
I think the big piece for us is the evolution of the strategy in terms of meeting the fans where they are. And so while the big sports and the big moments will still be a dominant place for us to show up, it’s about finding those other opportunities over the summer which are key beer-selling opportunities for us, as well as finding the new and emerging platforms to make sure we’re diversifying and meeting the fans where they are, engaging in the content in a way that meets the channels that they’re most used to and kind of seek out on their own.
– And how do you plan on innovating in that space? Will people, at some point, be able to sort of, while they’re watching the game or while they’re watching Netflix, be able to sort of click and order a beer from their couch? What are we looking at?
MATT DAVIS: I sure hope so. I think that’s really where we want to go. And if you look at our DTC partners, ordering beer has become easier than ever at home through different channels. And I think for us, it’s a matter of, how can we keep connecting those channels back to the way that fans are engaging with content, to make that entire consumer journey as seamless as possible?
I think over the past two years, fans have gotten much more accustomed to ordering things back to their house. And so as technology continues to improve and as the platforms continue to evolve, how we can integrate into those platforms and drive our sales, I think, will make everyone’s lives a lot more seamless and a big opportunity for our company.
– Cheers to you, sir. Matt Davis, Anheuser-Busch, head of US sports marketing and sponsorships, appreciate you being with us. Best of luck, moving forward. OK, Seana, I’m curious. Your thoughts? Matt convinced me. I actually think it’s a terrible investment to bet on the future of–
– OK, you’re coming clean.
– –pickleball except for Budweiser. I think that’s the only one of that group that I mentioned that makes sense because they can, in his words, meet the customer where they are. I don’t get it from Marc Lasry or Gary V or Tom Brady, or anybody else.
– I think it makes a lot of sense, especially when you take a look at the popularity of pickleball, you can see he explained very, very well the opportunity that the company sees in this space. But I got to bring up your impersonation of the “whassup.”
– Whassup!
– But you lost me after that. It’s the only thing I can think of.
