After getting 700,000 downloads of this year's Super Bowl ads from Anheuser-Busch's own sites and adding another 22 million people watching the commercials on video.google.com and video.yahoo.com the folks at AB decided to get in the content creation game with Bud.TV.
Anthony T. Ponturo, vice president for global media and sports marketing at Anheuser-Busch told the New York Times today, “the Internet will be equal to or better than television.”
Those words have media execs shaking tonight with the prospect of one the biggest advertisers (AB spent $919 million across all media in 2005) going into the content business.
Intriguingly, Bud.TV will also let consumers mash-up their own commercials on one channel appropriately named, Bud Tube. Other content from Bud.TV will also have the ability to be repurposed on other sites like You Tube.
When advertisers and consumers can get together to have their own creative dialogue the very nature of advertising and media will change. Talk about moving beyond the brand!
A friend reminded me today that we can no longer concern ourselves with the evolution of marketing and product innovation. In this age of co-creation, we all must focus on enabling the transformation of marketing and innovation.
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