Dive Brief:

• Budweiser Zero, Budweiser's first zero-alcohol brew, assembled a squad of athlete ambassadors for a Team Zero campaign promoting Dry January, per materials emailed to Marketing Dive. Dry January is a movement where consumers abstain from alcohol consumption to start the year.
• Consumers can sign up at JoinTeamZero.com to receive motivational emails through the end of the month from Team Zero, a group comprised of NFL player Darius Slayton and golfer Kevin Kisner, with support by Budweiser Zero co-founder and NBA star Dwyane Wade.
• Along with receiving motivational emails, consumers can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to receive two tickets to a 2021 World Series Game. The Dry January push comes as beer brands look to engage with consumers who are moving away from beer to other spirits or who are drinking more non-alcoholic options.

Dive Insight:

AB InBev introduced Budweiser Zero in July 2020 to tap into consumer interest in low- or no-alcohol beverages, a trend that's especially apparent among younger people who have gravitated away from beer. By launching an awareness push around Dry January, the brand can engage consumers who have joined a health-focused movement that continues to pick up steam since its founding in 2013 as a public health campaign in the U.K. At the same time, the promotion asks consumers to sign up for email messages from its team of athlete ambassadors, meaning that AB InBev can acquire valuable customer information that might inform future marketing efforts.

With Team Zero, Budweiser has assembled a varied group of athletes that consumers can "join" in their Dry January efforts. Along with U.S. stars Wade, Slayton and Kisner, the effort includes English soccer player Jordan Henderson, former Canadian ice hockey player Paul Bissonnette and George St-Pierre, a Canadian UFC champion.

Budweiser Zero is the latest beverage brand to tie up with Dry January. Danone's Volvic water line last month gave people a chance to win a month's supply of its bottled mineral water, replacing their "wet bar" with a "dry bar." Last January, Heineken promoted its alcohol-free Heineken 0.0 with a campaign starring Daniel Craig, while Molson Coors targeted millennials with its Miller64 push for a "Dry-ish January."

The Team Zero push comes as AB InBev looks to build on last year's growth in at-home consumption as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect on-premise channels. The marketer's revenue grew 4% in the third quarter of 2020, a strong period in the U.S. that the company attributed to a "consumer-focused commercial strategy that is centered on driving innovation and rebalancing our portfolio toward growing segments."