In an exclusive interview with PROPMARK during Tech & Cheers, the executive also spoke about Ambev’s plans in the wine market
A reference in the beverage and food market, Daniela Cachich took on a new challenge a year ago. Helping Ambev build a new business division to talk to an audience that has preferred drinks to beers, products that have been the company’s strength since the beginning.
Today, he leads the initiatives of brands such as Beats, Mike’s, Isla, Beefeater G&T by Tnica Antarctica, launched in partnership with Pernod Ricard, and Ambev’s wine operation in Argentina. “There’s a lot to come for the next few months”, says the executive, avoiding spoilers.
In an interview with PROPMARK during Tech & Cheers, an event organized by the company to show the process of transforming a brewery into a beverage market platform, Cachich, president of Future Beverages at Ambev, spoke about the first year of the business unit, building brands, strategies and the exercises that the area has been doing to learn and dialogue with this new consumer profile.
How is the future beverages division?
This is a division that was created about a year ago. There were already some initiatives before, like the Beats brand and our startup ZX [Ventures] I was already piloting Mikes, but with the growth of this category in the United States, which represents 20% of the alcoholic beverage market, it was also decided here at Ambev to create this division so that we can address this consumer demand. More and more, we see 18 to 24 year olds drinking, in addition to beer, other categories and, therefore, it is called beyond beers or future beverages because it goes beyond our beer portfolio.
What do you have today?
We have a portfolio that is practically focused on Beats and Mikes, which we call mixed drink or ready to drink. And there are two more innovations: one that was recently launched with Pernod [Ricard], which is called Beefeater, with Antarctic water, and there is another one called Isla, which is technically a Hard Selzer, which is a drink made with gin, sparkling water and fruit and is only 4% alcohol. for those looking for a lighter product, addressing the health & wellness trend.
Today, we have these four products and, in addition, a wine business, which I take care of in South America as well. We have a winery, which is in Mendona, Argentina. It has a very nice market there, which since Ambev bought so much has grown by two digits and is now among the ten most important wineries in Argentina. In the case of sparkling wine, the second brand is only behind Chandon.
Do you intend to bring to Brazil?
There are already some things being distributed in Brazil, but we have some plans for a slightly tidier wine portfolio in the future.
How is the reception of the products?
It’s super good, we see more and more brands gaining knowledge, gaining relevance. We have growth in the equity indexes of the brands, mainly Beats and Mikes, and now it is expanding to some other cities in Brazil. Isla, for example, was only in Rio de Janeiro, she is starting to go to other states. What we see is young people who are super interested in this category, which has a very large and very incremental growth potential for Ambev as well. It’s not about who drinks beer, drinks this, no. These are people who are already drinking other types of alcoholic beverages.
You commented on a panel here at Tech & Cheers about the importance of listening to the consumer, of using technologies to establish dialogues and about Brazil being a market where there is an “absurd amount” of people testing new drinks and possibilities. Putting all this together, who and where are you listening to these consumers and creators?
We are very thirsty for information. Each business division has a cultural intelligence group and we drink a lot, that’s what’s happening on the street for real. We actively listen to brands with partners such as Google, Meta, Twitter and we do some very immersive work in communities, in different states, precisely to get out of this So Paulo and Itaim axis. [Bibi].
Does this include the states of the North, Northeast, for example?
A very interesting feature at Ambev is that within the sales regions there are marketing people. They are the people who best understand what is happening in Salvador, in Curitiba, and these people give us feedback. They come to me with opportunities that, from So Paulo, I wouldn’t know what is happening, but that are very relevant in that region. a combination of a cultural intelligence team, which has its satellites in these places, and a series of studies that we are now doing with Ambev’s partner institutes, with an almost anthropological understanding of the relationship between young people and communities, with funk.
And now you are using the strategy of connecting these drinks with others from Ambev’s portfolio, right? Did recently with Mike’s and the beer brands
This is the power of the Ambev platform. We have super iconic brands of beer, as we can show that the same occasion of consumption. So where there’s beer, there’s Mikes, where there’s football, there’s Mikes, and where there’s barbecue, there’s Mikes. It was a really cool partnership with Daniel Wakswaser, CMO who takes care of all beer brands. It was a super cool partnership because we said: look, maybe it’s unimaginable to think that Ambev would do this here with a brand other than beer and the result was super great because, as the brands are very robust, when we talk about Brahma, Budweiser, from Skol – actually, it was the whole portfolio, even the crafts came in – they have a lot of knowledge, so they helped us accelerate our brand awareness as well. And we continue with the partnership with Anitta, our boss. There’s a lot to come for the next few months.
There is a global tendency for our generations to opt for drinks with a lower alcohol content, sometimes closely linked to health issues. How have you been following this?
We see it more pronounced in the United States than here in Brazil yet. Isla, for example, has 4% alcohol, Beats has 7.9% and Mikes has 5%. In other words, we are already addressing people who want to be part of the alcoholic beverage universe, but who want to consume less. We see this happening, but it’s a global trend that hasn’t materialized as much in Brazil yet. Normally, Brazil is a country that follows a lot of trends from abroad, at a different speed, depending on the category.
You are completing a year of Ambev. How has the experience been?
amazing. Here at Tech & Cheers, Jean [Jereissati] talked a lot about how we stopped being a brewery and became a great platform. Having the possibility to create a new category in a company like Ambev will also help to transform this issue of D2C, B2B, technology even for transactions with clients and consumers and will be able to build new brands also in a company with the power that Ambev has very interesting. Usually, you sit in a chair that has something built in and you’re going to run that thing. Here, I’m starting to build from scratch. AND [tem] It is a transformation that goes beyond that, a transformation of gender, race and ESG is very big.