Instant gratification is a concept that Lucas Herscovici is well acquainted with. And the demand for it in the beverage space is higher than ever. We talk to AB InBev’s Global Chief Direct to Consumer Officer on how he’s transforming the way beer enthusiasts buy their beloved brew, making it as easy to order online as pizza at supermarket prices. Plus, he shares how the storied brand is leveraging DTC products to disrupt the market, captivate audiences and create memorable brand experiences.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Whatever the consumer needs for that pizzel occasion, for that
watching football occasion, we need to fulfill that for our consumers.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hi, I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
We're all explore how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting,
transforming our lives and the way we do business at
a breakneck speed. I'll be joined by some of the
greatest business minds and strongest leaders who will share how
they build companies from the ground up or transform them
from the inside out. My bet is you'll pick up
a lesson or two along the way.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It's all good.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
It's very exciting today for me to welcome Lucas Arscovici,
a global chief direct to Consumer Officer for Anheuser Busch MBAB.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Awesome, Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's always great to be with friends, and it's been
a pleasure to get to know you many years ago
when we had our first media pitch back in twenty
fourteen when I was running Connections for North America. But
since then we've been able to have many, many opportunities
getting together and it's a pleasure and an honor to
be here with you.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
In my new role.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's been a year and a half, but I've been
more than twenty one years in the company, so I'm
already an adult within ABI.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Almost twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I joined the company back in Argentina, my home country,
and then since then, I've evolved throughout the years in
different commercial roles, trying always to drive change.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
That's been a constant.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I like being seen considered as a change agent, driving
revolutions within that journey, and I drove change back then,
driving innovation for global brands, drove a change by leading
connections and digital in North America, expanding our not out
portfolio when I was appointed five years ago the chief
of out Beverage Industry, and before this position, I was
(01:59):
chief of Sales. So excited with this new adventure that
I've been in the role for a year and a half.
Direct to consumer and ABI is something newer, and the
idea behind it is to revolutionize the way we engage
with consumers. And so that's why I think, as you said,
the title is different, it's new, it's fun, and for me,
(02:19):
it's extremely exciting because it's at the cusp of driving
that change that we need within the company, and.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
It's interesting, Lucas, this isn't a question that I thought
about until you just said this. But I remember the
one time I did get to hear Steve Jobs speak directly.
I was fortunate to be in a room when just
when the iPad was introduced, and it was the dialogue
between Steve Balmer and Steve Jobs interesting about what was
(02:47):
going to win this new fangled iPad This was in
two thousand and ten or a PC, and the question
was was it a PC or not? But Steve Jobs
talked about the fact that when he launched iTunes and
the idea of selling direct to the consumer a song,
if you will, the distinction he made was for years
(03:10):
the music industry thought of Tower Records or HMV or
Virgin Megastore as their consumer. And what Steve Jobs said
was no, no, no, Lucas HRSKOVICI is my consumer. Michael
Casson is my consumer. That's my direct to consumer. I'm
going to go direct to you, Lucas with the song,
so you don't have to buy a whole album. We
all know that, But are you using consumer in the
(03:32):
same way.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So it's a great question, and it all starts from
that key question, right is like, we are a company
that has history that dates back to thirteen sixty six.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Right, it's still our time Brands of the year one
thousand times.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
So always, the way we've done business is mainly through customers,
call it retailers. That's been the way in which we
go to reach our consumers. Rereach over to billion consumers,
right that we sell our products around the world, but
we reached them indirectly.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Okay, we reached in US via wholesalers.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
In other countries we go through the retailers or customers
as we call it. So for us, going direct to
the consumer is something that we have not done before
at scale.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It's your version of iTunes then.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, that's why it's like we are now. And that's
why I say it's a newer thing. Is we started.
We have stores, physical stores, and we've had physical stores
in some country like Mexico that are Molilo or Amas.
We have over ten thousands. That was the closest we
had to be able to go direct to the consumer,
and we have physical stores. But in twenty sixteen, we
(04:46):
launched what we called Z Delivery back in Brazil, which
was a proposition to help solve a pain point that
consumers had and still have today. We know beer is big,
it's bulky, it's difficult to transport, and people want cold.
On the other hand, you have pizza that is delivered
around the world in less thirty minutes, and the pizza
(05:08):
industry was able to crack that and then deliver hot.
So we said, why can't we solve this pain point
to consumers, And that's how the business was born, is
how to deliver cold beer in less than thirty minutes
at supermarket prices. And then through different iterations of the model,
we ended up finding the solution that worked, that was
(05:30):
viable in twenty nineteen, and then came COVID and during
the pandemic business exploded. We grew more than ten times
and now we deliver this proposition to millions and millions.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
We have over sixty million orders.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
That were delivered last year, and this solved a pain
point for our consumers, and that's why we decided to
expand it and basically d to CNABI. Now we have
two value propositions, one which is the one that I
just described, cold beer in less than thirty minutes at
supermarket prices, and this is available in thirteen markets around
the world. It started in Brazil and was scaled across
(06:07):
the world under the grand Ta da tada, like the
magician sound.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I like that. I like that.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And then the other proposition we have is called perfect Draft,
which is basically an espresso for beer, and this is
for more mature markets, so we have it currently in
Europe in more than seven countries in Europe. And basically
you buy this machine and you can order online or
you can buy in a store. You can buy the
kegs and the kegs are put in six liter kegs,
(06:36):
you put them in the machine. You can choose from
forty different varieties of beers, and then you can have
your draft beer at home at half the price you
pay in a bar. And we have more bars at
homes that bars exist across UK and France for example.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And Lucas.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Let me ask you another question. Let me talk about
the state of consumer engagement. You know you're talking about
it direct to that, And I love the tadah of
it all because I'm a big believer in magic, so
I love that sound of tada. But consumer engagement, there's
no magic. There's an insane number of platforms, channels, connected
experiences available and you in your experience, have certainly spent
(07:18):
a lot of time understanding that side of the world
as well as this DTC side of the world. How
are you finding the audiences and engaging in the right
way with the people who would be interested in the
delivery perfect draft or to da The market is so vast,
the beer drinking market is so vast, how are you
(07:39):
focusing on those folks that are willing and interesting? Again,
with this proliferation of channels.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So, in my previous roles, right going back to the
going direct, the role is more with our brands. We
have brands that have centuries of history, that have a
lot of awareness, that have a very strong brand equity,
brand power and communication and marketing is mainly for brand equity, right,
and it's hard to do this direct marketing to be
(08:08):
able to see the immediate sale associated with the dollars
you invest where the consumers you engage with.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah, let me stop you there for a second, Lucas,
because it's a really interesting point that media Link I
coined a phrase five years ago which caught some heat
in a positive way, and it was coming out of
that kind of experience, but also with a financial services
company who said to us.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Why do I have a.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Brand marketing unit over here and a performance marketing unit
over here. Why don't they come together? And that's when
I came up with that word which you and I
have bandied about before, which was brandformance. You just said it,
the brand is to do this, the performance is to
drive that. We looked at it and said the two
should come together, and I came up with that word,
(08:52):
which you know, I hadn't heard before. So I'm going
to take credit for inventing it, brandformance marketing.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So I throw that out to you as a thought start.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
So I love that you bring it up, and you
can ask my teams like I have. My teams have
targets on brandformance. So you coin the word and it's
part of my day to day. So the transformation we're
trying to drive is d to see. When we started,
it was all about performance marketing, right And as you know,
(09:21):
cost of acquisition has gone up in the past two
three years exponentially because of all the changes that have
happened in the industry with regards to privacy and also
other things. So the point is there is a challenge
and there's a lot of competition obviously in this space
like we are used to have been used to compete
against other CpG companies. Here we're competitive with tech companies,
(09:44):
we're competing with Uber each of the world, the Doors
Roppi and very very sophisticated and aggressive players with a
lot of intelligence and a lot of knowledge in performance marketing.
And I think the challenge that everyone faces now is
how to reinvent performance marketing to be about brandformance and
(10:04):
how to find the right combination of how to build
your brand while you are also driving sales, and to
be honest, is I don't think many companies have practiced yet.
We have pilots running in different parts of the world.
I have in Mexico, I have in Colombia, we have
in Arsdena in Brazil, and we're working with different companies
and even internally on how to crack this model. But
(10:27):
in the end, it's a combination of content that build
a brand that drives organic reach and then using the
right content to drive then performance media against it to
be able to find the best combination that will drive
consideration and cost of acquisition at the most efficient cost.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Lucas, you hit so many fine points there relative to
the market. Do you see the consumer reacting, and do
you see the consumer changing their habits because what you're
doing is changing the habit of how I get beer. Yeah,
I mean you're changing my habit, You're changing what I do.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
What's the consumer uptake? What are you seeing? What are
the early signs?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
We have been able to grow awareness right in a
very strong way in the past. I would say twelve months,
Tada has over fifty percent awareness, Zey has over seventy
percent awareness where we operate. Our brands are growing in
a healthy way, ahead of the industry, so we're gaining share.
So the point is our brands are growing well. We
(11:29):
just won kN Awards one for a few months ago,
so those are proof points. And we have been recognized
ABI in the Fast Company in most innovative companies in
the world, and we were number one in consumer products
and in services because of DTA C and bast Right.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
So in a way, we're.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Very proud of the progress we made. I'm seeing the
results come to fruition, right, but I'm never satisfying, so
I want to be benchmark in the world.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
You talked about pizza as an example of somebody who
cracked the code, you know a long time ago. How
are you looking at potential collabs with you know, I
can think of a beer and a pizza, I mean
the idea of I presume you're looking at that. You're
such a smart marketer lucas at your core and you're
talking about tech more here, but I know you've got,
(12:22):
you know, such deep marketing capability and insights. Are you
looking at the potential for collabs? I would guess you'd
have to be.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
One of the biggest opportunities that exist in beer, right,
is the meal occasion. Right When you look at beer
consumption across different occasions, like the relaxed occasion, the social
gathering occasion, beer has an opportunity to grow there and
depending the market, there is wine, there's also soft drinks
(12:50):
and pizza. Going to your question, also fast food could
be hamburgers and other things. Barbecue is a key thing
in which we have made considered efforts to.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Drive focus and growth.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Right, so we are actively going to your question, we're
actively pursuing initiatives in the markets I mentioned before, our
key markets Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia. We are tapping into
the meals occasion where pizza is one of them, and
our goal is to be able to increase our frequency
(13:25):
in those occasions. So that's the beauty of dta C
in a way, is what is the ultimate goal that
we have with d t C is how to help
the category grow in a healthier way and in a
faster way. Dta C gives us access to tens of
millions of consumers, right. Our long term ambition is to
connect with over one hundred million consumers in the countries
(13:48):
where we operate, and that gives us a wealth of
data that will then allow us to be able to
grow the size of the occasions, the frequency in these occasions,
and that will ultimately help the beer category. Let me
give you an example of Brazil and football or soccer
how you call it in the US. To bring this
(14:10):
into practical levels, Wednesday was the day of the week.
It was the lowest selling day that we had in Brazil.
Soccer games are played on Wednesdays, right, and we know
we have a strong association with soccer in the countries
where we operate for decades center we've been always activating
that occasion. So we decided to have us focused on
(14:32):
Wednesdays and to activate that occasion one to two hours
before the game to give promotions to consumers, and then
even looking at data, we also so in halftime there's
also an opportunity to activate there and we were able
to grow to make Wednesday the highest selling.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Day of the week.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Right, we increase the orders by more than thirty percent
on Wednesday prior to us activating these days. Why is
that because we saw the consumer pain point is like consumers,
maybe they didn't have cold beer in their fridges at
the moment of the game, and by the click of
a button less than thirty minutes, they got cold beer
further game with their friends. So instead of drinking a
(15:10):
soft drink, instead of drinking spirits or instn drinking wine,
they're now drinking beer and that helps drive joy to
those moments. It solves a pain point and it makes
the experience better. So that's a very practical example of
how we are growing and focusing on occasions to make
a win win for consumers and for us.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
It's so interesting because you're actually solving for a problem
that existed.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
When I think back to one of the real ills of.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
That moment in time that we call the dot com
explosion or then an implosion was people were solving for
problems that didn't exist. It was a nice idea, but
that's not really a challenge. You've actually solved the challenge
that somebody says, Boy, if I could reach for that
cold beer and have it, that's probably what I would do.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And yet now I have the opportunity, and I'll go
one step further.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Is like, which was a big revelation and provocation for us,
is we not only sell beer, right, eighty five percent
of what we sell in our platform is beer, but
we also sell softwares, we sell charcoal, we sell ice,
we sell meat, we sell competing beers. So my point
is we sell other products to make that occasion great
(16:22):
for our consumers. So whatever the consumer needs for that
pizza occasion, for that watching football occasion, we need to
fulfill that for our consumers.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
No, no, I love that part of the story, Lucas, Lucas,
I'm going to play the word game with you. I'm
going to play my t's and c's. This is my
lightning round question that I always like to ask these days.
Let's start with the T words trust, transparency, talent, technology,
and transformation. If you say any of those words in
(16:54):
our industry that's going to spark a conversation, trust, transparency, talent,
technology and transformation. And let's go to the seawards.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Now.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
The sea words are content, commerce, culture, creativity, community, and curation.
And you know, I think I got lucky that day
when I sat down and wrote those words down, because
as I did it, I said, these actually make sense
in terms of circling the wagons on the conversations that
we're all having in some way, shape or form. On
(17:25):
the seas, I rarely hear the word commerce anymore, not
modified by the word content, using content to drive commerce, culture, community, creativity.
Those three seas are certainly, you know, high on everyone's
list in terms of what we focus on. And then
curation is really the business we're all in, curating the
(17:45):
right messages, the right experiences, the right whatever.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
You know, we all struggle in the world.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
To find the right context and the right device at
the right time with the right message to the right consumer.
You know, because we've had this conversation before and in
favor of doing all the right things. But I also
like the fact that in marketing you need some serendipity,
you need some surprise and delight. You need some shock
and awe. It can't just be right right right. You
got to take a risk.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
But I throw those words out to you.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Back to the t's and c's, pick any of them
or all of them, and you know, give me a reaction.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So first of all of the t's, if I had
to choose one, right, it's talent, because in the end,
it's all about people. We're in an industry and they
all connect. You know, Talent connects with technology, connects with trust,
connects with transformation. So you need the people that have
the skills to drive a transformation. You need people that
(18:41):
have tech expertise, you need people that can be trustworthy.
So I feel we're in a talent industry. You know,
everyone in the industry. You've built great things in great
companies by choosing the right people to surround you. So
I think that for me is the number one thing,
and that I always choose my teams, the people that
(19:04):
I work with that can compliment me. I know my
strengths and I also know my opportunity areas, and I
think it's all about talent density and talent complementarity.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
I always have a.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Very high bar on the people that I want to
be in my teams and that I want to have
in the company, and that's what I comes. For me
was very inspiring. And then it's about looking at them
team composition right to drive what is needed for growth. Okay,
and then from a C perspective, I would choose the
(19:41):
word content right because again for me, it's a connector.
Content connects with creativity, connects with culture, all these things
that you said in a way is we need commerce
like in the end, is like, if you have the
right content, it can drive commerce right, it can drive conversations.
And so I I believe we're in a world where
(20:01):
content is more important than ever. Right when we think
of curation, it's curating the right content. So those are
the two let's say, one T one C that I
chose from the very insightful list of words. But I
think these are the most powerful worlds because I think
they connect with all the other teacencies.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I'll tell you why.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I know that you and I have a bond, Lucas,
because you picked my favorite two words out of the list.
Take me five years out, what do you think the
challenges will be from today that are the same And
you know what do you think the specific, not general,
but be as general as you want. I guess what
do you hope will have solved by Then let's focus
(20:45):
on that, what do you think will have solved in
five years as opposed to what the questions will be?
What do you think will answer and what answers do
you think we'll have?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So I think I'll answer two things from two different angles. Right,
I'm gonna on ABI and what D two C will
look like and what ABI will look like. And I'll
also answer from how I envision the world is going
to look like five years from now. It's very hard
to predict things, right, but it's a good exercise. First
(21:16):
of all I would say is we're in.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
A journey at ABI.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I've been here, as I said, over twenty one years,
and we're in a transformation journey.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
We're digitizing the way we connect with our consumers and
our customers.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
We want to become the number one tech enabled CpG.
So in the B to B side, we're leading in
the space with our b's platform that is very well
recognized out there. We have partnerships with a lot of
CpG companies out there now with D two C scaling
I'm very confident that we will become the number one
tech enabled CpG because of leading and the digitization both
(21:52):
in B to B and in D two C. Now,
what this will mean for ABI right is we're in
a journey. Right we are in the past quarters, we've
had sustainable growth and we're in a transformation that I'm
very excited to be part of. In the past, we
were renown for our m and a model that was
(22:13):
very successful as a strategy back then, and we're moving
into organic growth mode in the past years. So I'm
very confident with the progress we made. Right We've achieved
all time high in volumes last year, we have grown
power with our brands, We're growing in the beer category.
So when I look at the world five years from now,
(22:33):
I would like to see us continue down this path
and being recognized globally as a leader and as a
benchmark in organic growth, in building brands, in creativity ineffective marketer,
and being world class in this transformation from a CpG
to be the number one tech enable CpG. Now, talking
(22:54):
about how I see the world changing is what I'm
going to say, Consallicli Shae, Because everyone's talking talk about
AI and all these things, but in the end, it's
all about people and it's all about how talent. As
we were talking a few minutes before, embrace change right.
And I think it's up to leaders like you that
(23:14):
have always embraced change, are always looking for the next
opportunity ahead. And I believe this conversion between technology right
and content. But the companies and the people that leverage
the right talent, adapt to what's out there and embrace
a change in a positive way are going to be
able to thrive. And going to that point is whoever
(23:36):
is not trying to embrace the use of AI and
everything you're doing, it's going to die.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
There's not an option.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of
how and when and with whom. So that's I think
our next transformation as leaders is how to embrace and
continue learning and relearning as we go, because going back
to the talent question, is the talent that will thrive
is the talent that is open to learn as fast
(24:04):
as possible in this ever changing world.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Lucas SERSKOVICI, I want to thank you for spending the
time with me today. You lit up a lot, and
I'm certain our audience will be that much smarter for
having listened. You're a good man and a good friend,
and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Thank you, Mike, Thank you again. Thanks for having me.
It was wonderful to spend time with you. Thank you
for questions, Thank you for the time. It was really
fun and looking forward next time to do it in
person with a beer at hand and celebrating together exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
And if I didn't end with my normal end, it
would be bad.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
So I'll just say all good, thank you. I'm Michael Cassen.
Thanks for listening to Good Company.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Good Company. It is a production of iHeartRadio. A special
thanks to Lena Peterson, chief Brand Officer and Managing director
for her vision I'm Good Company, and to Jen Seay,
vice President Marketing Communications of Media Link for programming amazing
talent and content.
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Whatever the consumer needs for that pizzel occasion, for that
watching football occasion, we need to fulfill that for our consumers.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hi, I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
We're all explore how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting,
transforming our lives and the way we do business at
a breakneck speed. I'll be joined by some of the
greatest business minds and strongest leaders who will share how
they build companies from the ground up or transform them
from the inside out. My bet is you'll pick up
a lesson or two along the way.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It's all good.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
It's very exciting today for me to welcome Lucas Arscovici,
a global chief direct to Consumer Officer for Anheuser Busch MBAB.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Awesome, Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's always great to be with friends, and it's been
a pleasure to get to know you many years ago
when we had our first media pitch back in twenty
fourteen when I was running Connections for North America. But
since then we've been able to have many, many opportunities
getting together and it's a pleasure and an honor to
be here with you.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
In my new role.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's been a year and a half, but I've been
more than twenty one years in the company, so I'm
already an adult within ABI.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Almost twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I joined the company back in Argentina, my home country,
and then since then, I've evolved throughout the years in
different commercial roles, trying always to drive change.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
That's been a constant.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I like being seen considered as a change agent, driving
revolutions within that journey, and I drove change back then,
driving innovation for global brands, drove a change by leading
connections and digital in North America, expanding our not out
portfolio when I was appointed five years ago the chief
of out Beverage Industry, and before this position, I was
(01:59):
chief of Sales. So excited with this new adventure that
I've been in the role for a year and a half.
Direct to consumer and ABI is something newer, and the
idea behind it is to revolutionize the way we engage
with consumers. And so that's why I think, as you said,
the title is different, it's new, it's fun, and for me,
(02:19):
it's extremely exciting because it's at the cusp of driving
that change that we need within the company, and.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
It's interesting, Lucas, this isn't a question that I thought
about until you just said this. But I remember the
one time I did get to hear Steve Jobs speak directly.
I was fortunate to be in a room when just
when the iPad was introduced, and it was the dialogue
between Steve Balmer and Steve Jobs interesting about what was
(02:47):
going to win this new fangled iPad This was in
two thousand and ten or a PC, and the question
was was it a PC or not? But Steve Jobs
talked about the fact that when he launched iTunes and
the idea of selling direct to the consumer a song,
if you will, the distinction he made was for years
(03:10):
the music industry thought of Tower Records or HMV or
Virgin Megastore as their consumer. And what Steve Jobs said
was no, no, no, Lucas HRSKOVICI is my consumer. Michael
Casson is my consumer. That's my direct to consumer. I'm
going to go direct to you, Lucas with the song,
so you don't have to buy a whole album. We
all know that, But are you using consumer in the
(03:32):
same way.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So it's a great question, and it all starts from
that key question, right is like, we are a company
that has history that dates back to thirteen sixty six.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Right, it's still our time Brands of the year one
thousand times.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
So always, the way we've done business is mainly through customers,
call it retailers. That's been the way in which we
go to reach our consumers. Rereach over to billion consumers,
right that we sell our products around the world, but
we reached them indirectly.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Okay, we reached in US via wholesalers.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
In other countries we go through the retailers or customers
as we call it. So for us, going direct to
the consumer is something that we have not done before
at scale.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It's your version of iTunes then.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, that's why it's like we are now. And that's
why I say it's a newer thing. Is we started.
We have stores, physical stores, and we've had physical stores
in some country like Mexico that are Molilo or Amas.
We have over ten thousands. That was the closest we
had to be able to go direct to the consumer,
and we have physical stores. But in twenty sixteen, we
(04:46):
launched what we called Z Delivery back in Brazil, which
was a proposition to help solve a pain point that
consumers had and still have today. We know beer is big,
it's bulky, it's difficult to transport, and people want cold.
On the other hand, you have pizza that is delivered
around the world in less thirty minutes, and the pizza
(05:08):
industry was able to crack that and then deliver hot.
So we said, why can't we solve this pain point
to consumers, And that's how the business was born, is
how to deliver cold beer in less than thirty minutes
at supermarket prices. And then through different iterations of the model,
we ended up finding the solution that worked, that was
(05:30):
viable in twenty nineteen, and then came COVID and during
the pandemic business exploded. We grew more than ten times
and now we deliver this proposition to millions and millions.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
We have over sixty million orders.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
That were delivered last year, and this solved a pain
point for our consumers, and that's why we decided to
expand it and basically d to CNABI. Now we have
two value propositions, one which is the one that I
just described, cold beer in less than thirty minutes at
supermarket prices, and this is available in thirteen markets around
the world. It started in Brazil and was scaled across
(06:07):
the world under the grand Ta da tada, like the
magician sound.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I like that. I like that.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And then the other proposition we have is called perfect Draft,
which is basically an espresso for beer, and this is
for more mature markets, so we have it currently in
Europe in more than seven countries in Europe. And basically
you buy this machine and you can order online or
you can buy in a store. You can buy the
kegs and the kegs are put in six liter kegs,
(06:36):
you put them in the machine. You can choose from
forty different varieties of beers, and then you can have
your draft beer at home at half the price you
pay in a bar. And we have more bars at
homes that bars exist across UK and France for example.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And Lucas.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Let me ask you another question. Let me talk about
the state of consumer engagement. You know you're talking about
it direct to that, And I love the tadah of
it all because I'm a big believer in magic, so
I love that sound of tada. But consumer engagement, there's
no magic. There's an insane number of platforms, channels, connected
experiences available and you in your experience, have certainly spent
(07:18):
a lot of time understanding that side of the world
as well as this DTC side of the world. How
are you finding the audiences and engaging in the right
way with the people who would be interested in the
delivery perfect draft or to da The market is so vast,
the beer drinking market is so vast, how are you
(07:39):
focusing on those folks that are willing and interesting? Again,
with this proliferation of channels.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So, in my previous roles, right going back to the
going direct, the role is more with our brands. We
have brands that have centuries of history, that have a
lot of awareness, that have a very strong brand equity,
brand power and communication and marketing is mainly for brand equity, right,
and it's hard to do this direct marketing to be
(08:08):
able to see the immediate sale associated with the dollars
you invest where the consumers you engage with.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah, let me stop you there for a second, Lucas,
because it's a really interesting point that media Link I
coined a phrase five years ago which caught some heat
in a positive way, and it was coming out of
that kind of experience, but also with a financial services
company who said to us.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Why do I have a.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Brand marketing unit over here and a performance marketing unit
over here. Why don't they come together? And that's when
I came up with that word which you and I
have bandied about before, which was brandformance. You just said it,
the brand is to do this, the performance is to
drive that. We looked at it and said the two
should come together, and I came up with that word,
(08:52):
which you know, I hadn't heard before. So I'm going
to take credit for inventing it, brandformance marketing.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So I throw that out to you as a thought start.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
So I love that you bring it up, and you
can ask my teams like I have. My teams have
targets on brandformance. So you coin the word and it's
part of my day to day. So the transformation we're
trying to drive is d to see. When we started,
it was all about performance marketing, right And as you know,
(09:21):
cost of acquisition has gone up in the past two
three years exponentially because of all the changes that have
happened in the industry with regards to privacy and also
other things. So the point is there is a challenge
and there's a lot of competition obviously in this space
like we are used to have been used to compete
against other CpG companies. Here we're competitive with tech companies,
(09:44):
we're competing with Uber each of the world, the Doors
Roppi and very very sophisticated and aggressive players with a
lot of intelligence and a lot of knowledge in performance marketing.
And I think the challenge that everyone faces now is
how to reinvent performance marketing to be about brandformance and
(10:04):
how to find the right combination of how to build
your brand while you are also driving sales, and to
be honest, is I don't think many companies have practiced yet.
We have pilots running in different parts of the world.
I have in Mexico, I have in Colombia, we have
in Arsdena in Brazil, and we're working with different companies
and even internally on how to crack this model. But
(10:27):
in the end, it's a combination of content that build
a brand that drives organic reach and then using the
right content to drive then performance media against it to
be able to find the best combination that will drive
consideration and cost of acquisition at the most efficient cost.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Lucas, you hit so many fine points there relative to
the market. Do you see the consumer reacting, and do
you see the consumer changing their habits because what you're
doing is changing the habit of how I get beer. Yeah,
I mean you're changing my habit, You're changing what I do.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
What's the consumer uptake? What are you seeing? What are
the early signs?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
We have been able to grow awareness right in a
very strong way in the past. I would say twelve months,
Tada has over fifty percent awareness, Zey has over seventy
percent awareness where we operate. Our brands are growing in
a healthy way, ahead of the industry, so we're gaining share.
So the point is our brands are growing well. We
(11:29):
just won kN Awards one for a few months ago,
so those are proof points. And we have been recognized
ABI in the Fast Company in most innovative companies in
the world, and we were number one in consumer products
and in services because of DTA C and bast Right.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
So in a way, we're.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Very proud of the progress we made. I'm seeing the
results come to fruition, right, but I'm never satisfying, so
I want to be benchmark in the world.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
You talked about pizza as an example of somebody who
cracked the code, you know a long time ago. How
are you looking at potential collabs with you know, I
can think of a beer and a pizza, I mean
the idea of I presume you're looking at that. You're
such a smart marketer lucas at your core and you're
talking about tech more here, but I know you've got,
(12:22):
you know, such deep marketing capability and insights. Are you
looking at the potential for collabs? I would guess you'd
have to be.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
One of the biggest opportunities that exist in beer, right,
is the meal occasion. Right When you look at beer
consumption across different occasions, like the relaxed occasion, the social
gathering occasion, beer has an opportunity to grow there and
depending the market, there is wine, there's also soft drinks
(12:50):
and pizza. Going to your question, also fast food could
be hamburgers and other things. Barbecue is a key thing
in which we have made considered efforts to.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Drive focus and growth.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Right, so we are actively going to your question, we're
actively pursuing initiatives in the markets I mentioned before, our
key markets Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia. We are tapping into
the meals occasion where pizza is one of them, and
our goal is to be able to increase our frequency
(13:25):
in those occasions. So that's the beauty of dta C
in a way, is what is the ultimate goal that
we have with d t C is how to help
the category grow in a healthier way and in a
faster way. Dta C gives us access to tens of
millions of consumers, right. Our long term ambition is to
connect with over one hundred million consumers in the countries
(13:48):
where we operate, and that gives us a wealth of
data that will then allow us to be able to
grow the size of the occasions, the frequency in these occasions,
and that will ultimately help the beer category. Let me
give you an example of Brazil and football or soccer
how you call it in the US. To bring this
(14:10):
into practical levels, Wednesday was the day of the week.
It was the lowest selling day that we had in Brazil.
Soccer games are played on Wednesdays, right, and we know
we have a strong association with soccer in the countries
where we operate for decades center we've been always activating
that occasion. So we decided to have us focused on
(14:32):
Wednesdays and to activate that occasion one to two hours
before the game to give promotions to consumers, and then
even looking at data, we also so in halftime there's
also an opportunity to activate there and we were able
to grow to make Wednesday the highest selling.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Day of the week.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Right, we increase the orders by more than thirty percent
on Wednesday prior to us activating these days. Why is
that because we saw the consumer pain point is like consumers,
maybe they didn't have cold beer in their fridges at
the moment of the game, and by the click of
a button less than thirty minutes, they got cold beer
further game with their friends. So instead of drinking a
(15:10):
soft drink, instead of drinking spirits or instn drinking wine,
they're now drinking beer and that helps drive joy to
those moments. It solves a pain point and it makes
the experience better. So that's a very practical example of
how we are growing and focusing on occasions to make
a win win for consumers and for us.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
It's so interesting because you're actually solving for a problem
that existed.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
When I think back to one of the real ills of.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
That moment in time that we call the dot com
explosion or then an implosion was people were solving for
problems that didn't exist. It was a nice idea, but
that's not really a challenge. You've actually solved the challenge
that somebody says, Boy, if I could reach for that
cold beer and have it, that's probably what I would do.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And yet now I have the opportunity, and I'll go
one step further.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Is like, which was a big revelation and provocation for us,
is we not only sell beer, right, eighty five percent
of what we sell in our platform is beer, but
we also sell softwares, we sell charcoal, we sell ice,
we sell meat, we sell competing beers. So my point
is we sell other products to make that occasion great
(16:22):
for our consumers. So whatever the consumer needs for that
pizza occasion, for that watching football occasion, we need to
fulfill that for our consumers.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
No, no, I love that part of the story, Lucas, Lucas,
I'm going to play the word game with you. I'm
going to play my t's and c's. This is my
lightning round question that I always like to ask these days.
Let's start with the T words trust, transparency, talent, technology,
and transformation. If you say any of those words in
(16:54):
our industry that's going to spark a conversation, trust, transparency, talent,
technology and transformation. And let's go to the seawards.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Now.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
The sea words are content, commerce, culture, creativity, community, and curation.
And you know, I think I got lucky that day
when I sat down and wrote those words down, because
as I did it, I said, these actually make sense
in terms of circling the wagons on the conversations that
we're all having in some way, shape or form. On
(17:25):
the seas, I rarely hear the word commerce anymore, not
modified by the word content, using content to drive commerce, culture, community, creativity.
Those three seas are certainly, you know, high on everyone's
list in terms of what we focus on. And then
curation is really the business we're all in, curating the
(17:45):
right messages, the right experiences, the right whatever.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
You know, we all struggle in the world.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
To find the right context and the right device at
the right time with the right message to the right consumer.
You know, because we've had this conversation before and in
favor of doing all the right things. But I also
like the fact that in marketing you need some serendipity,
you need some surprise and delight. You need some shock
and awe. It can't just be right right right. You
got to take a risk.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
But I throw those words out to you.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Back to the t's and c's, pick any of them
or all of them, and you know, give me a reaction.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So first of all of the t's, if I had
to choose one, right, it's talent, because in the end,
it's all about people. We're in an industry and they
all connect. You know, Talent connects with technology, connects with trust,
connects with transformation. So you need the people that have
the skills to drive a transformation. You need people that
(18:41):
have tech expertise, you need people that can be trustworthy.
So I feel we're in a talent industry. You know,
everyone in the industry. You've built great things in great
companies by choosing the right people to surround you. So
I think that for me is the number one thing,
and that I always choose my teams, the people that
(19:04):
I work with that can compliment me. I know my
strengths and I also know my opportunity areas, and I
think it's all about talent density and talent complementarity.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
I always have a.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Very high bar on the people that I want to
be in my teams and that I want to have
in the company, and that's what I comes. For me
was very inspiring. And then it's about looking at them
team composition right to drive what is needed for growth. Okay,
and then from a C perspective, I would choose the
(19:41):
word content right because again for me, it's a connector.
Content connects with creativity, connects with culture, all these things
that you said in a way is we need commerce
like in the end, is like, if you have the
right content, it can drive commerce right, it can drive conversations.
And so I I believe we're in a world where
(20:01):
content is more important than ever. Right when we think
of curation, it's curating the right content. So those are
the two let's say, one T one C that I
chose from the very insightful list of words. But I
think these are the most powerful worlds because I think
they connect with all the other teacencies.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I'll tell you why.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I know that you and I have a bond, Lucas,
because you picked my favorite two words out of the list.
Take me five years out, what do you think the
challenges will be from today that are the same And
you know what do you think the specific, not general,
but be as general as you want. I guess what
do you hope will have solved by Then let's focus
(20:45):
on that, what do you think will have solved in
five years as opposed to what the questions will be?
What do you think will answer and what answers do
you think we'll have?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So I think I'll answer two things from two different angles. Right,
I'm gonna on ABI and what D two C will
look like and what ABI will look like. And I'll
also answer from how I envision the world is going
to look like five years from now. It's very hard
to predict things, right, but it's a good exercise. First
(21:16):
of all I would say is we're in.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
A journey at ABI.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I've been here, as I said, over twenty one years,
and we're in a transformation journey.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
We're digitizing the way we connect with our consumers and
our customers.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
We want to become the number one tech enabled CpG.
So in the B to B side, we're leading in
the space with our b's platform that is very well
recognized out there. We have partnerships with a lot of
CpG companies out there now with D two C scaling
I'm very confident that we will become the number one
tech enabled CpG because of leading and the digitization both
(21:52):
in B to B and in D two C. Now,
what this will mean for ABI right is we're in
a journey. Right we are in the past quarters, we've
had sustainable growth and we're in a transformation that I'm
very excited to be part of. In the past, we
were renown for our m and a model that was
(22:13):
very successful as a strategy back then, and we're moving
into organic growth mode in the past years. So I'm
very confident with the progress we made. Right We've achieved
all time high in volumes last year, we have grown
power with our brands, We're growing in the beer category.
So when I look at the world five years from now,
(22:33):
I would like to see us continue down this path
and being recognized globally as a leader and as a
benchmark in organic growth, in building brands, in creativity ineffective marketer,
and being world class in this transformation from a CpG
to be the number one tech enable CpG. Now, talking
(22:54):
about how I see the world changing is what I'm
going to say, Consallicli Shae, Because everyone's talking talk about
AI and all these things, but in the end, it's
all about people and it's all about how talent. As
we were talking a few minutes before, embrace change right.
And I think it's up to leaders like you that
(23:14):
have always embraced change, are always looking for the next
opportunity ahead. And I believe this conversion between technology right
and content. But the companies and the people that leverage
the right talent, adapt to what's out there and embrace
a change in a positive way are going to be
able to thrive. And going to that point is whoever
(23:36):
is not trying to embrace the use of AI and
everything you're doing, it's going to die.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
There's not an option.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of
how and when and with whom. So that's I think
our next transformation as leaders is how to embrace and
continue learning and relearning as we go, because going back
to the talent question, is the talent that will thrive
is the talent that is open to learn as fast
(24:04):
as possible in this ever changing world.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Lucas SERSKOVICI, I want to thank you for spending the
time with me today. You lit up a lot, and
I'm certain our audience will be that much smarter for
having listened. You're a good man and a good friend,
and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Thank you, Mike, Thank you again. Thanks for having me.
It was wonderful to spend time with you. Thank you
for questions, Thank you for the time. It was really
fun and looking forward next time to do it in
person with a beer at hand and celebrating together exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
And if I didn't end with my normal end, it
would be bad.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
So I'll just say all good, thank you. I'm Michael Cassen.
Thanks for listening to Good Company.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Good Company. It is a production of iHeartRadio. A special
thanks to Lena Peterson, chief Brand Officer and Managing director
for her vision I'm Good Company, and to Jen Seay,
vice President Marketing Communications of Media Link for programming amazing
talent and content.
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