Vaughan Croeser, Vice President of Marketing at South African Breweries, has been named Loeries Marketer of the Year for his work across media, creative development, brand and commercial marketing.
Announced during Loeries Creative Week on Thursday evening, 8 October, the award honours Croeser’s role in leading SAB’s marketing team to develop integrated communications for the beer brand and its Castle, Brutal Fruit, Milk Stout, SAB and Steam Lager brewing operations.
It also positions him as one of only two SAB marketers to date to have received the Loeries Marketer of the Year award, with Croeser’s work in particular focusing on the intersection between creative work seen by consumers and the strategic thinking behind it.
For a company that owns multiple iconic beer brands, it is a unique challenge to both leverage their legacy in the market while also ensuring these established products continue to resonate with younger consumers, as well as differentiate from one another. In the press release, Croeser cited several examples of the company’s work in recent years to achieve these goals.
Building brands that belong to culture
These included Castle Milk Stout’s African Time and Castle Lager’s Fans That Stood the Test of Time campaigns, as well as the Sun Shadows and FIFA World Cup work for Corona. For each of these, the creative teams worked to find a particular angle and cultural hook to drive the work, with varying approaches to engage the audience.
Now in its third year, Castle Milk Stout’s African Time campaign, created by Joe Public and launched in July 2026, leans into the universal appeal of family time and connection as a valuable cultural touchpoint to position the beer as a premium product for consumers in South Africa.
African Time also involved a broad range of production and marketing teams, both within SAB and across Joe Public and production partners Darling Films South Africa, with Zee Ntuli leading the direction of the production.
This included creative, production, cinematography, editing and post-production teams, each of which played a role in bringing the concept to life, and is reflective of the broader marketing sector in which agencies and production companies work closely with brand teams to develop advertisements, marketing activities and events that support the marketing brief and reflect the brand’s desired positioning.
The business behind the big idea
When it comes to integrated marketing communications, it is also necessary for the marketing leader to balance the creative aspects of a campaign or activity with its commercial requirements in order to deliver value for the business.
In speaking with The Media Online in 2025, Croeser noted that SAB’s integrated marketing communications efforts were focused on understanding the consumer, being consistent in its brand positioning, and being innovative in its approach. This included ensuring that each brand connected with consumers in different ways, based on their unique characteristics and the audiences that they served.
In his comments for the Loeries Marketer of the Year award, Joe Public founder and Group Chief Creative Officer Pepe Marais noted that Croeser embodied the commercial confidence and creative fearlessness that enabled the agency and its clients to deliver innovative integrated marketing communications.
Meanwhile, Nedbank Company’s Chief Marketing Officer and Loeries board member Khensani Nobanda praised his ‘commercial nous and creative bravery’.
Recognising the teams behind the work
Croeser himself credited a number of his colleagues with supporting his work and the success of the campaigns, acknowledging the teams at SAB and across agencies and production partners who enabled him to balance the commercial and creative aspects of integrated marketing communications.
“This award is a true testament to the incredible teams behind our brands,” he stated in his remarks, noting the company’s approach to invest in global marketing expertise while also enabling local teams to make decisions that were relevant to their specific market.
SAB CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac added his praise for Croeser’s leadership in driving the company’s marketing efforts and the teams that delivered the work, while AB InBev’s Global Chief Marketing Officer Marcel Marcondes noted the importance of consumer insight, creativity and commercial discipline in driving the work.
In many ways, these comments reflect the broader challenges and opportunities within the integrated marketing communications space, in which effective campaigns and activities require the combined efforts of brand and agency teams, as well as production partners, to deliver compelling work that drives business results.
By naming Vaughan Croeser as Loeries Marketer of the Year, the awards drew attention to his work in enabling this collaborative approach, which in turn have led to a range of innovative, integrated marketing communications activities that have strengthened his company’s brands and engaged consumers.
