Chief marketing officers are “lazy” and “need to take more risks” with campaigns, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s marketing chief Jorn Socquet told a session at the Cannes Lions today.
Socquet, VP marketing USA at the firm, said there were “a lot of naysayers” around the move by the world’s largest brewer to rebrand Budweiser as America ahead of the US presidential election. However, the campaign generated 1.3bn impressions.
“It took a lot of convincing of people that it’s the right thing to do,” speaking on a panel of CMOs hosted by The Economist in Cannes.
“As CMOs, we don’t take risks. I think we’re a very lazy bunch that wants to protect our jobs. We don’t want to have tough conversations with our bosses.”
Also on the panel, Atilla Cansun, CMO at pharmaceutical group Merck Group, stressed the need to take risks and “constantly provoke”. He said: “You can be overtaken in such a short space of time.”
Elsewhere, Socquet said PR agencies “need to get a bit more scientific” in how they link the reach of a campaign with sales and the bottom line – saying that “every time” he asked PR agencies to do this, they failed to provide an answer.
“How does it sell more beer? I don’t want just a conversation,” he said.
Bron en volledig artikel: PRWeek