Bud.TV to Air Webisodes, Sports, Even a Live Dating Game
Anheuser-Busch is launching an Internet-based entertainment network targeting its core market young, legal drinking age males.
The network, Bud.TV, is costing an estimated $30 million to launch. It will feature 24-hour live and on-demand programming and other content including humorous Webisodes, sporting events, consumer-generated content, field news reports, celebrity interviews, music downloads and comedian vignettes. The content will be provided with help from a number of exclusive partners including Wild West Picture Show Productions, TriggerStreet.com, LivePlanet, SEED, @radical.media, Omelet and DDB Worldwide.
Jim Schumacker, the VP-digital marketing and branded entertainment, will head the new the team overseeing Bud.TV. The launch is set for February 2007 to coincide with the Super Bowl.
“We’re always looking for new opportunities to connect with adult consumers on a more personal level,” said August Bush IV, president, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., in a statement. “With adults spending more time online looking for entertainment to fit their lifestyles, we believe Bud.TV will enable us to reach them in an engaging and fun way.”
The $30 million in startup costs are being redirected from spending for cable and late-night TV spots bringing its annual budget for Internet marketing to about 10% of its total $600 million budget, USA Today reported.
The online network will have as many as seven channels with the capability to be viewed in full-screen DVD quality, Anheuser-Busch said.
The channels include Bud Tube (think YouTube.com), where consumers can generate content, including homemade ads for Bud or Bud Light. Reality will be a channel that in one example, will air a live version of 1970’s The Dating Game, which will air in bars and restaurants in 25 cities. A comedy channel will showcase up-and-coming stand-up comics. The Happy Hour channels will offer news and events that will give viewers something to talk about. Other channels include sports, Hollywood and TV, the USA Today report said.
The online television network is a natural progression and extension of Anheuser-Busch’s efforts over the last few years to get into longer forms of communications, said Steve Jackson, senior VP-worldwide account director for Anheuser-Busch at DDB Chicago, the lead agency helping to produce and manage Bud.TV.
He said that with the core Bud demographic—males 21 to 34—spending more and more time online, and with broadband penetration reaching 60%, the brand and its marketing and engagement efforts had to match that demographic’s lifestyle.
He said the site and it’s content will open the door for lots of opportunities for promotion and interaction with the customer.
“It kind of marries up to a natural progression in terms of what we’ve been doing for Anheuser-Busch,” Jackson said.
Some of the content will include a partnership with Wild West Picture Show Productions for the marketing release of its upcoming documentary Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show.
Rodgers/Townsend, St. Louis, is providing the interactive design and Nine Systems, San Diego, is producing the technology and distribution platform for the network.
