• by Danielle Oster , April 30, 2024

Molson Coors shared its earnings report for the first quarter of 2024 today, April 30, reporting net revenue growth of over 10%. While the brewer -- whose brands include Blue Moon, Coors, and Miller -- spoke to the effectiveness of recent advertising efforts, it said in a subsequent earnings call it plans to keep such spending relatively flat.

After reporting the positive earnings and reaffirming its full-year outlook on the subsequent earnings call, Molson Coors president and CEO Gavin Hattersley shared that retailers had allocated 13% more shelf space for its Coors Light and Miller Lite brands in the U.S. during their spring inventory resets, and said the company also anticipated growing distribution for its core brand due to distributor confidence -- citing both points as reasons the company is confident for 2024, despite the beer category struggling in the first months of the year.

“Collectively, our core brands started 2024 strong, including double-digit brand volume growth for Coors Light and Coors Banquet in the U.S., high-single-digit brand volume growth for Miller Lite in the U.S. and double-digit brand volume growth for Oujsko in Croatia,” he said. He attributed the success of Coors Light in part to the recent “Choose To” campaign, which he characterized as “an evolution” of Coors Light’s “Made to Chill” campaign.

“In the past four months, we've launched new long-term campaigns across our core brands, starting with Coors Light during Super Bowl. Shortly thereafter, in the U.S., Coors Light became the top dollar share gainer year-to-date in the on-premise [category], per Nielsen,” he said. “Miller Lite is a close second and their combined success has fueled 12 consecutive four-week periods of industry-leading on-premise growth for Molson Coors, four times more growth than the next largest competitor.

“You'll continue to see ‘Choose Chill’ as we launch a new music program this summer and expand Coors Light's presence in soccer and football,” he added. “We believe work like this has driven Coors to become a trusted and desirable brand for consumers, which is true for Coors Banquet as well.”

Coors Banquet reportedly grew volume in the U.S. by 23% in the first quarter. Hattersley said the company expects it to grow distribution by nearly 20% on the year, which he attributed to “surging demand” in the Southeast and Great Lakes regions where it has “historically under-indexed."

Also, “We plan to keep driving Banquet with more television media pressure, TV advertising for the first time in several years, and several large programs with current and new partners across television, music and apparel,” he added. He also spoke to the recently launched campaign reviving “Great Taste, Less Filling” for Miller Lite, calling the early response to the campaign “very strong,” and alluding to further plans for the brand around the MLB, the Olympics, and football.

“We continue to invest strongly behind our brands globally, increasing marketing spend for our core power brands in particular,” Molson Coors CFO Tracey Joubert said on the call. “This included showing up in a big way in live sports at the Super Bowl, March Madness and the FA Cup as well as supporting the launch of the new Blue Moon campaign.”

That said, the company anticipates relatively flat marketing expenditures overall for the remainder of the year, following spending increases in 2023, as it has outlined previously.