Molson Coors hiked its second quarter ad spend, with a major focus on premium lines and innovation brands outside of its beer portfolio.

The company’s Q2 sales of $3.27 billion USD were just shy of analyst estimates, but the company nonetheless hiked its 2023 key financial guidance metrics. It expects ongoing strength in the company’s core brands, though is mindful of ongoing “softness” in the beer category and financial cautious consumer behaviour.

Marketing, general and administrative also increased 3.9% to approximately $735 million USD.

This spend boost, the company says, is primarily due to higher incentive compensation and “increased marketing investment on innovation brands,” which includes its its line of hard seltzers like Vizzy, Simply Spiked and Topo Chico, as well as above-premium beers such as Belgian Moon and Staropramen.

In this morning’s earnings call, Molson Coors president and CEO Gavin Hattersley claimed the company “completely changed its approach to marketing and media” three years ago, and as a result, its brands are “demonstrably stronger” than in 2019.

Hattersley says Molson Coors grew volume and share in Canada, U.K.  and the U.S.

In Canada, both Coors Light and the Molson brand franchise grew volume and net sales in the quarter. Trends were on their way up pre-Q2, the company says, with Coors Light taking over the beleaguered Bud Light brand in terms of popularity in Canada. While the hard seltzer sector was down north of the border, Molson Coors says it was the only brand to hold onto its market share.

The company is reporting that U.S. domestic shipments were driven by growth in its premium products, as Americas brand volumes increased 8%, including an 8.7% increase driven by growth in core brands, with Coors Light, Miller Lite and Coors Banquet each growing double-digits.

Hattersley says dollar share for Coors Light based on its “Made to Chill” campaign helped it grow more industry dollar share “than any other beer brand.”

According to Hattersley, it is seeing strong retail display dollar gains, and that 20 key retailers are updating planograms for more retail space, with particularly strong growth in convenience, where it has historically under-indexed. It is, therefore, planning a boost in shopper marketing spend in that channel.