Fighting off stiff competition, we secured the Silver Trophy in the ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Awards for Anheuser-Busch’s three-year innovation project.

To meet changing consumer needs in a category with more choice than ever before, Anheuser-Busch overhauled their product development process in 2018, making a commitment to lead future growth by placing people at the center of innovation. They created iWeek, an annual strategic innovation initiative which has evolved year on year since, with the help of InSites Consulting. A process which used to take two years from insight to shelf, is now executed in less than 100 days. The process is also more effective, resulting in Anheuser-Busch driving 50% of the industry innovation volume in the last two years, up from 10% in 2017.

“Overnight we were able to test with over 3,000 consumers, in only about a 12-hour period. We’re using technology in order to really move faster than we’ve ever moved before and put consumers at the center in a way we never have before. Even when living and breathing innovation, it’s incredible to see how many new ideas our teams are able to generate. They continue to push the envelope, which really gives me confidence that we can lead future growth.”

Jake Kirsch, VP Innovation at Anheuser-Busch

“This year was a big step up from what we had in the years before, the focus was really to bring consumers closer to the teams here at iWeek. The process really started way ahead of the week; even before we come here together as a team, we spend a lot of time identifying the consumer problems we have to solve. Then we come here to really implement our mentality of bringing people to the center, to make our innovations people-first.”

Dafne Hefner, VP, Consumer Strategy & Insights at Anheuser-Busch

The Research Effectiveness Award showcases the very best in demonstrating how market or social research has had substantial commercial and/or societal impact. It is awarded by ESOMAR, the World Association for Market, Opinion and Social Research, during their annual Congress, this year a virtual four-day event streamed live around the world.

The judges provided three key reasons why this project received the silver trophy:

• for putting customers at the center of the discussion;
• for the overall level of creativity in innovation;
• for involving the whole client organization in the process.

Eager for more? Check out the Anheuser-Busch Innovation Machine case study for a better insight into the what, how and impact of this three-year innovation project!