Anheuser-Busch's Bud.TV tanking

Posted Apr 14th 2007 7:55PM by Tom Barlow
Filed under: Marketing and Advertising, Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD)

Bud.TV, Anheuser-Busch's (NYSE: BUD) attempt to capture the young adult audience that is fleeing television for online entertainment, has fallen flatter than the head on a week-old glass of beer. The internet site carries shows specially produced for Budweiser such as What Girls Want and Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show.

The site was launched with great fanfare earlier this year, with hopes that it would soon draw 2-3 million visitors per month. In February, however, only about 250,000 visitors viewed the programming. Last month Bud.TV dropped another 100,000 visitors, according to ComScore Media Matrix.

Bud.TV ran into considerable criticism from a group of the nation's attorneys general who accused Anheuser-Busch of using it to corrupt those under drinking age. In response, the company built a screening process for potential viewers that requires them to wait while A-B verifies their age by checking against state driver's license databases.

The death spiral for this initiative is probably due to the difficulty of gaining access, and the impression that the site's vetting process invades customer's privacy. Without a proven, compelling product behind the curtain, I doubt Anheuser-Busch will be able to drive enough traffic to Bud.TV to justify its continuance. The company has been cross-posting some content on YouTube, hoping to entice viewers, but to little result.

According to Advertising Age, in March Bud.TV's viewership numbers finished just below those of a site for purchasing sheet rubber. Ouch.

Tags: Bud.tv, budweiser advertising, BudweiserAdvertising, internet advertainment, internet advertising, internet entertainment, InternetAdvertainment, InternetAdvertising, InternetEntertainment

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-16-2007 @ 10:22AM

Christopher Mims said...

There is something about how decisions are made in corporations that is uniquely incompatible with the web--where, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the difference between the right implementation of your site and the almost-right implementation of your site is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Any self-respecting interface designer (or, for that matter, teenager) could have seen this coming (and perhaps the folks at Bud did, but it was too late to pull the plug in light of the last-minute addition of this age verification procedure).

In a way, it's unfortunate, because the idea of bringing back the old model--where brands sponsored whole shows--seemed like a valuable add to the mix of funding sources for interesting content on the web.