“Wine and spirits are not sitting still and marijuana is being legalized in many states across the country. We have to act now and we have to do it together,” said Ronald den Elzen, President and CEO at Heineken USA. Basically, the beer market is falling short to wines and spirits and is in a full-blown panic. The four largest brands – Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite and Budweiser – have fallen more than 4.5 percent recently. So, how can the industry turn around when its top brands are declining? Is the answer experiential marketing? If you take a look at the recent statistics, it appears so. At the end of 2016, there were over 5,000 breweries in the U.S. and there were over 60,000 attendees at the Great American Beer Festival, with tickets selling out for the craft-beer event in record time. So even though there is still a demand for the beer market, the forever stain that beer is only for middle-aged men with beer bellies is one that the industry cannot get rid of, especially in today’s health obsessed world. “Every consumer today drinks on average one bottle of beer less per week than they did 20 years ago. If this is not a wake-up call that we have to do something, I don’t know what is.”