Heineken pushed up its advertising and gross sales spend by a fifth final yr to €2.7bn because the world’s second-largest brewer sought to lure inflation-hit customers to change to extra upmarket beers.

The Dutch group, which additionally makes Tiger, Amstel and Birra Moretti, elevated advertising and promoting bills by 22.4 per cent to a stage forward of pre-pandemic spending, an increase pushed by promoting and selling its merchandise.

That introduced the determine to 9.5 per cent of internet revenues, or about €2.7bn, within the run-up to the corporate’s first Tremendous Bowl commercial in many years and because it launched a brand new, lighter lager, Heineken Silver.

Dolf van den Brink, chief government, mentioned the group would keep it up spending extra on advertising to faucet right into a pattern of drinkers switching to extra upmarket merchandise — a shift he mentioned was persevering with regardless of price of residing pressures.

“Persistently, our premium manufacturers are rising sooner than the whole portfolio,” he mentioned. “There are lots of considerations about . . . pricing and the resilience of customers, however we actually see, all the best way to the fourth quarter, our premium portfolio outperforming our complete portfolio,” he mentioned.

Van den Brink added that Heineken was centered on progress in its present manufacturers because the business moved on from a interval of consolidation. “The relative significance of [mergers and acquisitions] received’t be the identical because it was prior to now,” he mentioned. “Rising our advertising spend is necessary.”

Advertising and marketing spend remained the identical as a proportion of revenues from 2021, however that got here in a context of steeply rising revenues — like-for-like income progress was 19.1 per cent — because the group pushed via huge price will increase to customers.

James Edwardes Jones, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, mentioned the spend was “in step with our view that the brewers collectively are elevating their aggressive recreation”, partly in response to positive aspects made in key markets by the spirits business.

The group’s progress technique additionally features a push in non-alcoholic beer, which van den Brink mentioned had the potential to make up 5 to 10 per cent of the worldwide beer market and of Heineken’s gross sales.

The Tremendous Bowl advert that includes Paul Rudd as Marvel character Ant-Man — a return to the sporting occasion after three many years during which the world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev was its sole alcohol advertiser — was the primary to characteristic a non-alcoholic beer, Heineken 0.0.

Van den Brink added that Heineken aimed to promote its Russian enterprise within the first half of 2023 after promising to exit the market following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

He mentioned the brewer was speaking to potential consumers of its Russian arm, which employs 1,800 individuals, however signalled the transaction would take longer than beforehand indicated.

Heineken withdrew its flagship model from Russia within the first half of 2022 however nonetheless sells different manufacturers within the nation. “We maintain working [the business] in order that we’re capable of proceed to pay our workers as a result of in any other case you run the chance of being nationalised,” van den Brink mentioned.

The group reported that its revenues earlier than distinctive objects rose 19.1 per cent to €34.6bn, producing €4.5bn of working revenue — above analysts’ expectations — because the volumes of beer the group offered rose 6.9 per cent.

Heineken expects greater revenues and earnings in 2023, however forecasts declining beer gross sales in Europe as inflation squeezes customers. Shares within the group have been up 1.9 per cent to €92.98 by mid-morning.