It seemed a simple question, so Lager Heads asked it. Exactly how good is Anheuser-Busch at marketing, particularly when it comes to advertising on the Super Bowl? We all know A-B is a prolific advertiser — it will be the No. 2 advertiser on the big game this year and also ranks as the world’s most generous sports marketer. But for these purposes, we are interested in the quality of its work, not just the quantity.

When we called a few experts, we got a wide variety of opinions. Which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising, since the merits of Budweiser beer also divide many people.

Count Mark Schupp among the critical. Schupp, a former Bud Light brand manager and now leader of a marketing shop in St. Louis that works with rival brewer MillerCoors, said A-B does “reasonably well” in squeezing value from Super Bowl commercials by building an entire marketing campaign around them. It’s important to build buzz on the Internet to extend the company’s message, and to use the commercials to get A-B’s sales force revved up, he said.

“In today’s environment, you can’t just run one commercial on the Super Bowl without doing the other things that increase your topspin,” Schupp said. “You have to look at it as an entire package.”

Still, Schupp said Anheuser-Busch has too many commercials on the Super Bowl. Anheuser-Busch buys a ton of air time to lock competitors out of the game, among other reasons. But Schupp said “they have hit their optimum point of diminishing returns.”

Tom Pirko, president of consulting firm Bevmark, thinks so, too. Anheuser-Busch executives “are stuck in a posture where they think they have to carpet bomb the viewing public,” he said. Big advertising might help Anheuser-Busch hang onto its market share, but it doesn’t raise consumption of beer, he said. “There’s a huge amount of money being spent for not a lot of return.”

For Anheuser-Busch InBev’s part, a spokeswoman told Lager Heads that “it is all about effective and efficient marketing, helping us to build lasting consumer connections, driving sustainable, profitable, growth. … We are focusing our spend on activities that directly relate to what our consumers ’see, touch and enjoy’ and on those brands with greater growth potential.”

Okay, fair enough. But Schupp’s main philosophical beef with Anheuser-Busch remains. At one point, he says, the company was the best marketer in the word. “Ten, twenty years ago, Anheuser-Busch used to be very entrepreneurial and cutting edge,” he said. “They were the first sponsor of ESPN. I remember thinking, ‘What the hell is ESPN?’”

Now, he says, “they don’t want to make any major missteps and offend anybody and lose any market share.” In other words, Schupp argues, Anheuser-Busch gone a little more conservative, waiting until competitors try things, and then swooping in and doing it on larger scale. “They need to get their entrepreneurial spirit back,” Schupp said.

Of course, others believe Anheuser-Busch is still at the top of its game.

Jan Slater, a branding expert and the head of the department of advertising at the University of Illinois, said Anheuser-Busch brings a unique cache to the Super Bowl.

“When you think of beer in the Super Bowl, Anheuser-Busch is always the one that’s there,” she said. “Historically, Anheuser-Busch has always been a very big brand leader because they always understood what Anheuser-Busch meant and what Budweiser meant and what their relationship was with their consumers.” It treated consumers like family, she said.

“They’re one of the premier marketers in terms of knowing what they’re doing,” up there with Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, she said. “It is the category leader in the world; It’s a great American brand.”

Slater said the appearance of the Budweiser Clydesdales in epic American events — including the Super Bowl and the Rose Parade — builds Budweiser’s status as “a tremendous heritage brand.” And it’s an American brand that made inroads in places not typically known for embracing Americana, such as Britain and Germany, she said.

“All of the Budweiser advertising is what I would call atmospheric,” said Neil Alperstein, professor of advertising and popular culture at Loyola College. “It’s brand reinforcement. It’s an investment in people’s emotional connection to the brand.”

“We live in a world where symbolism is very important,” he said. “It’s transcended the actual object that people want to sell.”

Anheuser-Busch’s quality control is impressive, Slater said, citing the St. Louis brewery tour. The company has been proud to tout that fact in its advertising.

“They’re visible in all the right spots,” Slater said of Anheuser-Busch. “They understand who drinks their products.”