The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has named AB InBev as the 2026 Creative Marketer of the Year. The honorary accolade is presented to a marketer that has amassed a body of iconic, Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time. AB InBev’s continued commitment to using creativity as a growth lever across its portfolio resulted in it winning an impressive 37 Lions at last year’s Festival.
AB InBev is the first company in Cannes Lions’ history to be honored with the award for a third time. Since 2021 the global brewer has embarked on a journey of inorganic to organic growth, betting on creativity as a key competitive advantage that has contributed to strong performance and increased revenues.
Simon Cook, CEO, Lions, said, “AB InBev has embedded creativity into how it operates, not just how it leverages marketing, and it is consistently outperforming as a result. By prioritizing creativity at a C-suite level and implementing an internal creative effectiveness system, it continues to demonstrate the clear and compelling link between creative excellence and commercial performance. This is a historic win, recognizing a company that has made creativity scalable, measurable and sustainable across hundreds of brands globally.”
AB InBev’s published Q1 2026 business results demonstrate strong momentum across its global footprint, achieving all-time high revenues and increased beer volumes. Its focused and consistent consumer-centric strategy builds brands to drive sustainable long-term growth–with 20 “+1 billion-dollar” brands.
Marcel Marcondes, global chief marketing officer, AB InBev (and the inaugural jury president for the this year’s Creative Brand Lions), said, “Creativity is always in service to driving growth. To be named Creative Marketer of the Year for the third time in the last five years reflects our consistent and sustainable approach to building brands people love. It’s also a credit to the amazing teams and agency partners we have around the world that are delivering all-time high revenues. Cheers to everyone that helped make this history-making recognition possible.”
At Cannes Lions the Juries have consistently recognized AB InBev and last year awarded work from 10 countries across a breadth of 15 different Lion Awards. Additionally, the Global Effie Index ranked AB InBev as the World’s Most Effective Marketer for the fourth year in a row, and in the Kantar BrandZ rankings, AB InBev brands led the world’s most valuable beer brands, taking eight of the top 10 places, with Corona ranked number one for two years in a row.
AB InBev will open the 2026 Cannes Lions program, delivering a keynote on the Lumière Theatre stage at 10am, Monday, June 22. Following this, it will be honored as Creative Marketer of the Year at the final awards show of the Festival on Friday, June 26.
Cannes Lions will run from June 22-26 in Cannes, France.
