Michelob Ultra's VP of marketing breaks down its plan to grow sales

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for January 5. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter at Business Insider. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Send me feedback or tips at LJohnson@businessinsider.com.

Today's news: Michelob Ultra's sales are soaring even as beer sales slide, the "Ratatouille" musical earns over $1 million in ticket sales, and Google employees form a union.

Michelob Ultra's sales have soared even as people ditch beer. Here's how the brand has catered to health-focused consumers in the pandemic.

• Tanya Dua reports that Michelob Ultra has grown market share and sales, even as beer sales have been sliding in recent years.
• She spoke with VP of marketing Ricardo Marques about the brand's positioning with active lifestyles. In 2020, Michelob Ultra tapped celebrities for livestreams and engaged with NBA fans.
• But competition is heating up, and Michelob plans to compete by growing its portfolio and target audience.

Read the full story here.

The 'Ratatouille' musical that began as a TikTok trend earned over $1 million in ticket sales

• Dan Whateley reports that "Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical" earned over $1 million in ticket sales from its virtual New Year's Day stream.
• The musical started as a TikTok trend and became a Broadway-scale online production featuring Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-nominated performers like Wayne Brady, Tituss Burgess, André De Shields, and Ashley Park.
• Some proceeds from the virtual performance will go to The Actors Fund, a charity that supports performers and other entertainment workers who have been hit hard by theater closures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the full story here.

More than 200 Google employees have formed a union, and workers are calling it 'a long time coming' after years of turmoil inside the company

• Google employees are praising the announcement that more than 200 Google workers have formed a union.
• The union is meant to promote inclusivity and ethics at Google and will be open to all 120,000 Alphabet employees in the US and Canada.
• Raksha Muthukumar, a software engineer at Google, tweeted that the union came together because "it's time for tech workers to stand together & say we won't prop up a world made for the wealthy, the privileged, the white, the male, the heteronormative."

Read the full story here.

More stories we're reading:

• Inside JCPenney's 6-month bankruptcy saga: roller-coaster hearings, 'emotional distress,' and 60,000 jobs on the line (Business Insider)
• Leaked documents show how McDonald's plans to win the 2021 chicken-sandwich wars. Here's everything we know about the looming fast-food battle. (Business Insider)
• Sorrell enters post-Brexit era with S4 takeovers worth £150m (Sky News)
• From boots to coffee, podcast merch has become big business (The Wall Street Journal)
• The Cut find its new top editor at Teen Vogue (New York Times)
• The end of the Series A: While tech financing booms, DTC brands face a new reality (Digiday)

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at LJohnson@businessinsider.com and subscribe to this daily email here.