I wrote in the past about Bud.TV and the problems it will have attracting sustainable audiences. According to a new article in Ad Age:
Anheuser-Busch Cos. CEO August Busch IV today said the No. 1 brewer expects its pioneering online television network to "fade" during the second half of the year.
A-B spent $30-40 Million on a site that they will just let fade away. Smart decision, because aggregating in a world of disaggregated content is just a bad idea. It will always be an uphill battle to attract an audience. With open distribution systems like YouTube, Joost etc. there is no need to hold content hostage on your own little "island". There are millions of people gathered in existing video portals who would love to watch, recommend and share your videos...so why spent ad $ to draw them out of that environment?
Bud.TV is a great case study on how not to run a branded content strategy. Hopefully, they will adjust their mindset and extend their content out on the web.
Dave Beaupre has said for years,
Bring the content to the people, not the people to the content.
Wise words that could have saved A-B a lot of money...
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