The New York Times magazine ran a big story about it a few months ago: Budweiser's push to become an online television-like network. Launched with high hopes, the bold endeavor is now on the brink of disaster. Bud.TV may be going to slowly fade away very soon as its audience is in free fall. With an announced goal of 2 million unique visitors in its first year, Bud.TV's statistics have been dismal: 253,000 visitors in month #1 152,000 in month #2, and less than 100,000 in month #3 (April 2007). The sharp decline in ratings resulted in Anheuser-Busch providing guidance and lowering its expectations for visitors to Bud.TV, shooting for an audience of 500,000 instead of the 3 million monthly visitors it had planned.
NewTeeVee comments: "You know it’s bad when the Wall Street Journal article reporting it uses the word 'edgy,' in some form, more than once."
What lessons can be learned from Bud TV’s struggle? Well, the same that can be drawn from Wal-Mart’s ill-fated attempt to launch an online community: There’s nothing more painful than watching un-cool brands vying to be cool. And, secondly, viral effects can only rarely be planned top-down. If there’s no gene, there’s no gene. If there’s no meme, there’s no meme. As simple as that (or as complex, as the case may be).
Was Bud.TV a complete failure? I don’t think so. You have to applaud the courage of Budweiser’s marketing team to experiment with social media. They demonstrated that they were willing to take a risk - and at least they got a big story in the NY Times magazine out of it.
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