The chimpanzee in the executive chair
Branded entertainment To reach the hard-to-reach age group of young men between 21 and 34, the US beer company Anheuser-Busch is focusing on films on the Internet.
Branded entertainment To reach the hard-to-reach age group of young men between 21 and 34, the US beer company Anheuser-Busch is focusing on films on the Internet. Imagine you are the boss of an advertising agency and have come a long way. One day you come into the office and there's a monkey sitting in your chair - a real-life chimpanzee. How do you think he would approach your job? Would it have a creative moment or would it literally make a monkey of itself?
Funny or not, this plot is part of a new series called "Replaced by a Chimp", which has just been launched. But the series is not being shown on TV, nor is it being produced by one of the usual movie production companies. "Replaced by a Chimp" is a new comedy series on the internet. It is produced under the aegis of the US beer company Anheuser-Busch. "We are constantly looking for ideas on how to communicate with our customers on a more personal level," said August Busch, the company's president, when announcing the project, which has been available at www.bud.tv since the beginning of February. "People are increasingly looking for content online, and Bud.TV will help define the boundaries of this new media world."
In fact, Anheuser-Busch, whose advertising campaigns are regularly very popular with the public due to their entertainment value, wants to position itself as a marketer of the future with this elaborate project. The impetus for this came two years ago, when the company increasingly tackled content projects for television. "We were going through 10,000 manuscripts a year that had the potential to grow beyond a 30-second spot," says Jim Schumacker, Vice President of Digital Marketing at Anheuser-Busch, who developed the concept. "Bud.TV acts as an incubator for shows that may later be further developed and sold on to television." The Internet serves as a valuable tool for investigating consumers' media usage habits. Users of Bud.TV have a wide selection of content at their disposal. Eight channels, from comedy and news to science fiction and reality TV, are offered on the website. Most films are on average four minutes long, but currently everything from one minute to eight minutes is available.
Entertainment and image boost The purpose of the 40 million dollar project is to appeal to the hard-to-reach age group of young men aged between 21 and 34 and to build up a branding tool over the years. "We want to entertain consumers and also create a positive image for the Budweiser family," says Schumacker. "It's an interactive activity compared to passively leaning back in front of the TV." In addition, you can react more flexibly: If a series is not popular with the audience, it can be canceled immediately or placed less prominently. Nine percent of all Americans already state that they watch videos on the internet every day. According to the market research company TNS Media Intelligence, Anheuser-Busch has already reduced its expenditure on advertising clips on network TV from 53.5 percent of its total advertising budget in 2004 to 47.2 percent in 2005. While 292.8 million dollars were spent on this in 2004, this sum fell to 287.2 million in 2005.
The aim of Bud.TV is to reach an audience of two to three million per month after the start-up phase. Whether this can be achieved depends primarily on two components, believes Joe Mandese, editor-in-chief of the advertising trade magazine Mediapost. "The trick is to offer good content and make sure that consumers know about it," says Mandese. "For this reason, they need to market the project well elsewhere." One strategy Anheuser-Busch is counting on is viral marketing, i.e. making the content cool enough for users to tell their friends about it and forward the links to the relevant pages. "The viral component is inevitable," believes Tracy Ryan, a marketing professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of a new book called "Advertising on Television". "As soon as someone has access to the site, the films are automatically forwarded and posted elsewhere on various video websites such as YouTube."
The fact that other advertisers also have the opportunity to present their brand to the public is ensured with segments such as "Hardly News", where game manufacturers can present new products. One marketer, Electronic Arts, produces an entire science fiction series called "Afterworld". The extent to which Budweiser itself will engage in product placement on Bud.TV is still unclear, but the name of the website alone is enough to create brand awareness. "Most of the shows don't currently include any references to the brand," says Ryan. "It's all about customers interacting with the website. That's how brand loyalty is created."
Consumer advocates protestThe Bud.TV project
is celebrated by the marketing world as innovative and forward-looking, but criticized by consumer advocates. They accuse the company of familiarizing a young audience with alcohol at an early age. Although Bud.TV uses an elaborate procedure to check the age of users before they can even access the website, 21 public prosecutors from across the country have signed a letter of protest to the company. The letter accuses those responsible of having taken inadequate measures to prohibit young people under 21 from watching Bud.TV.
In particular, the possibility of downloading Bud.TV clips onto the iPod is criticized. "Why ask for proof of age if the content can be distributed without any problems?" it says. The fact that advertising clips for beer are freely accessible to everyone on YouTube is not mentioned.
Gerti Schön
Funny or not, this plot is part of a new series called "Replaced by a Chimp", which has just been launched. But the series is not being shown on TV, nor is it being produced by one of the usual movie production companies. "Replaced by a Chimp" is a new comedy series on the internet. It is produced under the aegis of the US beer company Anheuser-Busch. "We are constantly looking for ideas on how to communicate with our customers on a more personal level," said August Busch, the company's president, when announcing the project, which has been available at www.bud.tv since the beginning of February. "People are increasingly looking for content online, and Bud.TV will help define the boundaries of this new media world."
In fact, Anheuser-Busch, whose advertising campaigns are regularly very popular with the public due to their entertainment value, wants to position itself as a marketer of the future with this elaborate project. The impetus for this came two years ago, when the company increasingly tackled content projects for television. "We were going through 10,000 manuscripts a year that had the potential to grow beyond a 30-second spot," says Jim Schumacker, Vice President of Digital Marketing at Anheuser-Busch, who developed the concept. "Bud.TV acts as an incubator for shows that may later be further developed and sold on to television." The Internet serves as a valuable tool for investigating consumers' media usage habits. Users of Bud.TV have a wide selection of content at their disposal. Eight channels, from comedy and news to science fiction and reality TV, are offered on the website. Most films are on average four minutes long, but currently everything from one minute to eight minutes is available.
Entertainment and image boost The purpose of the 40 million dollar project is to appeal to the hard-to-reach age group of young men aged between 21 and 34 and to build up a branding tool over the years. "We want to entertain consumers and also create a positive image for the Budweiser family," says Schumacker. "It's an interactive activity compared to passively leaning back in front of the TV." In addition, you can react more flexibly: If a series is not popular with the audience, it can be canceled immediately or placed less prominently. Nine percent of all Americans already state that they watch videos on the internet every day. According to the market research company TNS Media Intelligence, Anheuser-Busch has already reduced its expenditure on advertising clips on network TV from 53.5 percent of its total advertising budget in 2004 to 47.2 percent in 2005. While 292.8 million dollars were spent on this in 2004, this sum fell to 287.2 million in 2005.
The aim of Bud.TV is to reach an audience of two to three million per month after the start-up phase. Whether this can be achieved depends primarily on two components, believes Joe Mandese, editor-in-chief of the advertising trade magazine Mediapost. "The trick is to offer good content and make sure that consumers know about it," says Mandese. "For this reason, they need to market the project well elsewhere." One strategy Anheuser-Busch is counting on is viral marketing, i.e. making the content cool enough for users to tell their friends about it and forward the links to the relevant pages. "The viral component is inevitable," believes Tracy Ryan, a marketing professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of a new book called "Advertising on Television". "As soon as someone has access to the site, the films are automatically forwarded and posted elsewhere on various video websites such as YouTube."
The fact that other advertisers also have the opportunity to present their brand to the public is ensured with segments such as "Hardly News", where game manufacturers can present new products. One marketer, Electronic Arts, produces an entire science fiction series called "Afterworld". The extent to which Budweiser itself will engage in product placement on Bud.TV is still unclear, but the name of the website alone is enough to create brand awareness. "Most of the shows don't currently include any references to the brand," says Ryan. "It's all about customers interacting with the website. That's how brand loyalty is created."
Consumer advocates protestThe Bud.TV project
is celebrated by the marketing world as innovative and forward-looking, but criticized by consumer advocates. They accuse the company of familiarizing a young audience with alcohol at an early age. Although Bud.TV uses an elaborate procedure to check the age of users before they can even access the website, 21 public prosecutors from across the country have signed a letter of protest to the company. The letter accuses those responsible of having taken inadequate measures to prohibit young people under 21 from watching Bud.TV.
In particular, the possibility of downloading Bud.TV clips onto the iPod is criticized. "Why ask for proof of age if the content can be distributed without any problems?" it says. The fact that advertising clips for beer are freely accessible to everyone on YouTube is not mentioned.
Gerti Schön
