Molson Coors Beverage Co. spent more on marketing its core brands during competitor Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Bud Light marketing imbroglio, and it’s working, according to the company’s fourth-quarter results.
Molson Coors on Tuesday announced earnings that beat average estimates for earnings and net sales. Analysts had predicted that the impact of the Bud Light boycott would wane, and that higher marketing spending would knock adjusted earnings per share down 14%. Instead, the metric decreased only 8%.
Companies don’t call out competitors by name in earnings releases, but Molson touted that it was “well positioned to benefit from the significant shifts in consumer purchasing habits,” particularly in its premium segment. That includes Coors Light, a top competitor to Bud Light, which suffered a consumer boycott last year after a promotion featuring a transgender influencer was poorly received.
Molson also said in its earnings release that shifts in the industry in 2023 “have become structural” — in other words, they’re ingrained, and not fading anytime soon.
Molson also reported that its core brands grew in the US, with Coors Light, Miller Lite and Coors Banquet each up by double-digit percentages.
Robert Moskow, an analyst at TD Cowen, said in a note that the quarterly results imply that Molson “will hold onto the majority of the share they picked up from the Bud Light boycotts.”
The beer maker had to pay for the gains. Its marketing and administrative spending increased 19% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. That’s even more dramatic when you consider that in 2022, that category declined 14%. The company doesn’t break out advertising spending from other costs but said it had increased marketing investment, along with raising incentive compensation.
Molson Coors shares fell 1.9% at 9:49 a.m. in New York. The stock is up 1.5% this year through Monday, behind the 2.4% rise of the S&P 500 consumer-staples index.
Now Molson needs to try to keep customers who abandoned Bud Light. On Super Bowl Sunday, as Molson promoted Coors Light in a commercial featuring a train driven by rapper LL Cool J, AB InBev touted Bud Light with an ad starring a whimsical genie. The company’s Budweiser brand, meanwhile, returned to one of its most traditional symbols, Clydesdale horses.
