Guest Blog:
Jodi Harris
Vice President, Marketing Culture & Learning
Anheuser-Busch

One of the biggest growth opportunities for the beer industry and advertising overall is with women. As a leader in our industry, Anheuser-Busch sees an opportunity to show women in more empowered roles. Our SeeHer membership has become key to us delivering on that promise.

Earlier this year, we amplified our voice to bring about change in our company and spearhead gender equality in our industry. We kicked off our relationship with a “SeeHer Bootcamp” for 100 of our people, including our creative and media partners. At the bootcamp we looked at our ad campaigns for unconscious bias with what consumers told us through our GEM®TM.

Scores, which we, as a results-driven organization first and foremost, immediately put to use.

GEM®TM provided not only data on our ads but also served as a barometer to measure progress in the development and execution of our creative work. Since that time we’ve integrated the GEM®TM questions and SeeHer tip sheets into our creative effectiveness program and instituted monthly touch points with our brand teams to provide feedback on direction. 

And we’re just starting.

We’re studying net results right now, so I can’t make definitive statements about our efforts to activate equality quite yet. But I can shed light on some of the progress we’re making and the insights that have helped us evolve the way we represent women in our advertising.

When we shared GEM®TM results for our ads across our brands, we saw we could improve how we portray women. 

We thought just by including women, our ads would be more inclusive. Now we understand that it’s not just showing them but showing their role in more accurate ways that’s needed.

We signed up to be part of the SeeHer movement because it helps us to understand our consumers better, which can only benefit our business. And with great leaders driving progress the right way, it’s so rewarding.

I grew up in a family with very strong women, and always felt we had to fight for our voice. Today, as women working in industries going through transitions, it’s great to finally see ourselves here. We can speak up now. 

So, the more companies that join the movement, the better. 

There is a lot we still need to do, in our industry and others. But with SeeHer, we can make a difference.