Social Norms

Influencing behavior change with social norms through the power of marketing

Whatever a particular group, community, or culture accepts as normal becomes known as their social norms, and these rules have tremendous power to change how people behave. This means reinforcing positive social norms has the potential to significantly reduce harmful consumption.

That’s a major opportunity, and we’re in the right position to seize it because we don’t just sell beer - we sell beer that’s connected to powerful brands. We’ve been identifying the social norms that produce positive outcomes, then promoting them through brands people already love and trust to reinforce those behaviors and accelerate progress toward reducing harmful consumption.

Smart Drinking Tips for Servers

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1. Never serve alcohol to underage consumers - avoid this by checking consumers' 1D.

2. Consumers should not obtain alcohol for anyone underage.

3. Encourage consumers to pace their drinks to 1 drink or fewer per hour, for example by alternating with non-alcohol beer.

4. Encourage consumers to make plans to avoid drinking and driving, such as by using a rideshare service, taxi, public transportation, or designated driver.

5. Provide food for consumers and encourage them to eat before or while drinking.

6. Provide non-alcohol options, such as non-alcohol beer, for consumer.

7. Do not serve alcohol to consumers who are visibly intoxicated.

1. Never serve alcohol to underage consumers - avoid this by checking consumers' 1D.

2. Consumers should not obtain alcohol for anyone underage.

3. Encourage consumers to pace their drinks to 1 drink or fewer per hour, for example by alternating with non-alcohol beer.

4. Encourage consumers to make plans to avoid drinking and driving, such as by using a rideshare service, taxi, public transportation, or designated driver.

5. Provide food for consumers and encourage them to eat before or while drinking.

6. Provide non-alcohol options, such as non-alcohol beer, for consumer.

7. Do not serve alcohol to consumers who are visibly intoxicated.

Smart Drinking Tips for Consumers

Dowload the PDF here

1. Pace your drinks to 1 drink or fewer per hour.

2. Alternate your drinks with a non-alcoholic beverage, such as non-alcoholic beer or water.

3. Make plans to avoid driving after drinking - use a rideshare service, take a taxi, use public transportation, or designate a driver.

4. Prevent your friends and family from drinking and driving.

5. Eat food before or while drinking.

6. Keep track of how many drinks you’ve had.

7. Avoid trying to “keep up” or “out drink” others.

1. Never serve alcohol to underage consumers - avoid this by checking consumers' 1D.

2. Consumers should not obtain alcohol for anyone underage.

3. Encourage consumers to pace their drinks to 1 drink or fewer per hour, for example by alternating with non-alcohol beer.

4. Encourage consumers to make plans to avoid drinking and driving, such as by using a rideshare service, taxi, public transportation, or designated driver.

5. Provide food for consumers and encourage them to eat before or while drinking.

6. Provide non-alcohol options, such as non-alcohol beer, for consumer.

7. Do not serve alcohol to consumers who are visibly intoxicated.

Responsible Marketing

To ensure that our marketing promotes positive norms, we have established a Responsible Marketing and Communications Code (RMCC). The RMCC sets the standards for our marketing and commercial communication worldwide to ensure that our commercial communications are aimed only to those above the legal drinking age and are carried out in a socially responsible manner.

RMCC Document

Dowload the PDF here

Given the importance of social norms, responsible marketing is absolutely essential to accelerating the reduction of harmful use of alcohol. Our marketing teams evaluate all 300+ of its annual marketing campaigns to ensure adherance to the Responsible Marketing & Commercial Communications (RMCC) code, no matter where in the world they’re going out.

Digital Guiding Principles

To ensure that our digital assets are compliant with international Digital Guiding Principles standards related to alcohol sales and marketing, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) conducts an independent audit of our assets every 3 years.

Areas that are reviewed for compliance include: age affirmation mechanisms, site transparency, user generated content regulation, forward advice notice and a responsible drinking message. In preparing for that audit, we developed a first of-its-kind automated auditing system that continuously monitors all our digital assets for compliance against WFA audit parameters.

Social Norms Marketing campaigns

Through our social norms marketing campaigns, we can leverage our global reach in delivering meaningful messages to consumers. We promote social norms centered on responsibility, moderation and a concern for others by leveraging people’s relationship to our products and brands.

To encourage creativity in our social norms marketing, we launched our first annual Social Marketing Competition four years ago and have continued to grow the program ever since. In 2021, the competition received 107 campaign submissions from more than 28 countries around the world—a 29% increase since its inception. The winning campaign, Corona #Rewater, encouraged consumers to refill their empty Corona bottles with water to hydrate between beers.

Four of our Smart Drinking campaigns won at the 2021 Cannes Lions Awards, including the 2020 Aguila “Live Responsible” and Brazil “Responsible Billboards” campaigns.

Guidance Label

Evidence shows that what we put on packaging can influence drinking behavior, which is why AB InBev has been working to place easy-to-understand Smart Drinking advice and guidance labels on all its products - regardless of whether or not it’s mandated by law. It’s the world’s largest voluntary guidance labeling initiative to date.

Ambition

Invest 1 billion USD across our markets in dedicated social marketing campaigns and related programs by the end of 2025.

Progress

We have invested more than 450 million USD toward achieving our goal, which includes more than 100 million USD in 2021*. We are on track to deliver our 1 billion USD investment by 2025.

Smart Drinking Stories