Budweiser To Use Super Bowl Ads To Launch Its Own Network

In a story here Wednesday, I discussed the contrasting Super Bowl advertising of big-money Budweiser and the guerilla marketing tactics of GoDaddy. Now it turns out, Budweiser knows how to use guerilla advertising methods, also. Budweiser, the biggest advertiser in the biggest event on television, is going to use its Super Bowl presence to launch its own direct-to-the-consumer broadband network via the Web (story here). The network will feature a variety of programming and entertainment options.

This is an example of Web 2.0 in action.  It’s about a big company taking full advantage of the convergence of broadband, consumer demands and new Web capabilities to create a new mini-network. I think you will see this become quite common in the years ahead. The new network is expected to be called Bud TV. The implications of this could make things more difficult for the traditional television industry. In the MediaPost article, Hilmi Ozguc, the head of Maven, the company that will run Bud TV, sums up what this all means. “This changes the whole concept of broadcasting out to consumers. Typically, media companies have done that. With the Internet, we blow out that old model and enable advertisers to reach consumers directly without having the media companies sell the ad space.”

Pretty exciting stuff or scary as hell...depending on which side of the media fence you’re on.