TLDR: Corona Cero, the non-alcoholic beer brand, achieved significant marketing success with its “For Every Golden Moment” Olympic campaign by uniquely blending AI-powered linguistic analysis with human psychological insights. This strategy enabled AB InBev and its partners to rapidly develop a resonant campaign, leading to a 440% increase in volume growth for Corona Cero and cementing its position as AB InBev’s fastest-growing brand.
Corona Cero, AB InBev’s non-alcoholic beer brand, has struck ‘Olympic gold’ in its marketing strategy by successfully integrating artificial intelligence with deep human insights. This innovative approach, detailed at Esomar’s Trends Horizon conference, allowed the brand to craft its impactful ‘For Every Golden Moment’ Olympic campaign within a tight three-week timeframe.
As the first beer sponsor for the Olympics at a worldwide level, Corona Cero faced the challenge of creating a campaign that would stand out from conventional Olympic advertising tropes, which often focus on athletes overcoming adversity or global unity. Camila Marcondes, director and head of Latin America at Brand Genetics, a consultancy that worked with AB InBev and agency Grey, highlighted this as a ‘strategic threat’ to a disruptive brand like Corona.
To overcome this, Brand Genetics employed a proprietary AI tool, Lexi, which combines decades of psychological theory with cutting-edge technology. This AI-powered linguistic analysis was used to run specialized tests on consumer groups, gathering emotive language around Olympic experiences. The tool rapidly uncovered hidden motivations and emotional connections, a process that typically takes weeks but was completed in mere seconds.
The AI identified three core consumer motives related to the Olympics: esteem, communal achievement, and the fundamental human need for belonging. However, while AI provided the ‘signal,’ human strategists were crucial in developing the ‘story.’ Marcondes emphasized, “The raw motivational signal is the starting point, not the end point. Then a human strategist takes this why, and asks the crucial question, so what?”
This blend of AI and human expertise led to the ‘For Every Golden Moment’ campaign. The 30-second advertisement creatively draws parallels between everyday joyful moments, such as running into the surf or dropping a lime into a beer, and iconic Olympic celebrations.
The campaign’s success was remarkable, driving a 440% increase in volume growth for Corona Cero and establishing it as the fastest-growing brand within AB InBev’s portfolio. Ipsos metrics cited by Marcondes also indicated significant behavioral change and strengthened consumer relationships.
Sebastian Schuliaquer, Global Director, Premiumization Insights and Foresight at AB InBev, lauded the insights from Brand Genetics, stating, “The insights from Brand Genetics didn’t just inform our campaign – they fundamentally shifted how we understand the relationship between our brand and the Olympic experience. The speed and depth of understanding enabled us to make critical decisions with confidence, resulting in one of our most successful sponsorship activations ever.”
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The success of this strategy has led Corona Cero to iterate on the campaign for the upcoming Winter Olympics, utilizing the same core insights. AB InBev’s non-alcoholic beer portfolio saw a 27% net revenue growth in Q3 2025, largely propelled by Corona Cero’s performance, with the company now leading in eight of its top 14 non-alcohol beer markets. This underscores the category’s importance and AB InBev’s continued investment and innovation in it.
