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Budweiser Launches Online Entertainment Channel
Anheuser-Busch today is debuting Bud.tv, which will feature comedy series, short films, and other video segments. The shows won't necessarily hit you over the top with Budweiser's message (in the way that traditional commercials might), but the company believes that attaching its name to the content will help it channel some of the "viral" buzz Web videos create.
An article in today's New York Times analyzes the way the new site will try
to attract viewers, interestingly, without films that are specifically about people drinking the company's beer or which directly promotes the company's products. Nor will the site be littered with banner ads for the company.
Anheuser-Busch executives are banking on a more subtle connection. Attach a brand name to something cool, something entertaining, and that elusive young man (and to a lesser extent, young woman) may check out Bud.TV’s offerings again and again, send them along to friends, even take a stab at creating his own minifilm for the site. Cultivate that warm, fuzzy feeling about Budweiser, and the company may cement the loyalty of the existing customer, or better, woo the uncommitted or hard-to-reach drinker to a Bud Light or a Michelob or a Peels malt-liquor beverage.
