The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced AB InBev as the 2026 Creative Marketer of the Year, making it the first company in history to win this award three times. AB InBev was Creative Marketer of the Year in 2022 and 2023.
The award was earned this year by embedding creativity into its corporate culture. “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,” AB InBev said in its statement. The company won 37 Lions in 2025, across countries and 15 different Lion Award categories, including the Audio & Radio Grand Prix for Budweiser’s One Second Ads.
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, stated, “AB InBev has embedded creativity into how it operates, not just how it leverages marketing, and it is consistently outperforming as a result. By prioritising 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, recognising a company that has made creativity scalable, measurable and sustainable across hundreds of brands globally.”
Marcel Marcondes, global chief marketing officer, AB InBev, added, “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.”
AB InBev was also ranked World’s Most Effective Marketer for the fourth year in a row at the recent Global Effie Index and in the Kantar BrandZ rankings, AB InBev brands lead 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 programme, delivering a keynote on the Lumière Theatre stage at 10am, Monday 22 June. Following this, it will be honoured as Creative Marketer of the Year at the final Awards Show of the Festival on Friday 26 June.
Recent Past Creative Marketer of the Year Winners:
- 2025: Apple
- 2024: Unilever
- 2023 & 2022: AB InBev
- 2021: Microsoft (Note: Award was paused in 2020)
