Do you want a beer with that?
By Iain MacMillan February 5th, 2007
In Stories
Bud.tv launches today. Having faithfully promised that I live in America and am of a suitable age, I’ve had a quick look around Bud’s big hope for online greatness. the content raised a couple of smirks, I must admit. But I can’t yet see myself spending too many hours on there.
A very thorough article from the New York Times will provide most of the background you need on the online channel whose programming apparently costs around $20k a minute. The Brookston Beer Bulletin provides a basic run down of what you can expect to see.
My thoughts, in no particular order:
1. Some “cool” production companies seem to have found a great new way to make money. This could uncover some interesting, new talent or simply be an opportunity for them to make some money from their B-grade ideas.
2. I wonder what the role of DDB, Bud’s traditional ATL agency, is in this venture? How involved do they get in creating programme ideas, rather than just in promoting them? Could be the dream ticket for frustrated ATL creatives wanting to burst out of the 30 second TVC bubble.
3. How much time and investment will Bud put into developing their very own channel? After all, they’re a beer brand rather than a media company.
4. I’d love to know how they’re measuring success. I’m sure it’ll get a lot of column inches. And initially a lot of eyeballs. But what targets do they need to meet in order to continue funding?
1 Steve Sanford // Feb 6, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Poor Bud.
Instead of developing new brands to attract the attention of beer-guzzling twentysomethings, they’re going to waste money on a bizarre quasi-forward-integration foray into creating exclusive content for a media network they still need to build.
I wanted to look at Bud.TV, but the big-brother welcome demanding email addresses, full name and date of birth is not only a huge invasion of privacy, it’s a rather high barrier to entering the viral-marketing playground Bud dreams it can create.
Over the past weekend, 30 seconds of Superbowl advertising cost 2.6 million USD. What’s that get you? About 91 million US viewers (leaning-back), plus 20 million additional views in Webspace (leaning-forward!) on the next day, if your commercial scores high on the buzz scale. Two million bucks on Bud.TV gets you… why, yes, that’s the sound of crickets chirping.
Bud should focus on its brands — and fund the creative minds to build buzz around them. Wasting time and money to replicate media channels that already exist is foolish; it’s especially foolish with the first-mover advantage that, say, network television and YouTube enjoy. (No password require for either.)
Spend the budget on rolling-out a new brand, or re-positioning an old one. Let experts leverage the digital marketspace, decide the best channel, or build the next instalment of Web2.0. After all, Anheuser-Busch doesn’t build football stadiums — it just pays to make sure its clever slogans and logos adorn the place. The ‘net ain’t so different.
Thankfully, they’re putting just 5% of the advertising budget into Bud.TV. Guess there’s always a little left at the bottom of the glass.
-Steve Sanford
Paris, France
2 Nigel Shardlow // Feb 8, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I have banged on about this before but this particular line of bullshit and brown water is down to nothing more than the vanity of Marketing Directors and the agencies that flatter them. The trouble is, ‘marketing’ as a career still attracts too many fluffyheads and innumerate, irrational, soi-disant ‘creative’ types for its own good.
Increasingly, I’m thinking, the best way in for media consultancies that have a clue is going to be the Finance Director: “Do you even know how much these guys are spending? And for what?”
3 Joanna Pena-Bickley // Feb 11, 2007 at 3:40 am
Anheuser-Busch will spend over $30 million this year on this online video network. The site would be on my top 10 in the usability category if the age verification actually worked. Is this a good spend of marketing dollars? what is their metrics and ROI model?
Continue the conversation at: http://joannapenabickley.typepad.com/on/2007/02/on_budtv.html