Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

Rather than give up without a fight, Anheuser Busch has decided to revamp their Bud.TV Web site with a number of changes to give it another chance to succeed.

I think this is an appeal from their pride, as Anheuser has always been known as one of the most innovative advertisers in the business. It's a good sign to see them try to make this work. The company originally had a goal of attracting between 3 to 5 million visitors a month. The traffic was so low in May it didn't even meet the requirements of measurability, said comScore.

Whether or not these changes will work for Bud.TV remains to be seen, because of how it is thought of now by consumers, but they are good guidelines for online marketers to learn from.

Here are the 9 Changes they're making:

1. They will make it edgier

For the brand that it represents, the site was far too tame for the tastes of those visiting it. The company has this as one of the key elements to quickly move on.

For any of us in marketing, we need to know the "edge" factor in what we're offering. The bottom line here is how edgy is our demographic. The answer determines the degree we offer in our content.

2. Social-networking component (community)

When you think of beer again, and the connection to hanging out with friends, it is essential for the company to incorporate online community opportunities for site visitors. People have a certain mentality when thinking of hanging around and drinking, the company must bring that 'feel' to the site.

We also must think of our demographic again and what it is they do and think. Offering people ways to connect is crucial.

3. Shorter Videos
 
Most of the videos on the Bud.TV site were in the 6-minute range. While that would probably be okay for an occasional, special video; as a pattern it would stink. Most people don't want to have a 6-minute video be the only option available to them. The company is responding by going with much shorter videos.

4. They are shortening The Joe Buck Show

While the jury is still out on professionally created video, as far as it applies to people interacting with it online, for the Bud.TV site, even The Joe Buck show was considered too long by viewers. The company said they will be shortening the show in response to that. Long-form professional video may not work in many circumstances.

5. Using Outside Content

The closed system just won't work for online marketing. It's somewhat surprising that the company went with this to begin with. Even so, now they're going to search for other sources of online video and content for their sites, and that should give a new flavor to what the company creates itself. It will offer much more variety and "voice" to their offerings.

6. Putting their content on other sites (syndication)

This is another one of those surprises when you consider the sophistication Anheuser-Busch, and they made this big mistake of trying to do everything on their site. Companies must open up and offer their content where people are looking, not try to force them to come to them.

7. Increase Interactivity
 
If the Internet is anything, it's interactivity. People expect to be able to interact with things on a site. This is an area that we can't be stingy with. In most cases the more interactivity the better.

8. Enlisting Bloggers

The company tried to make it on its past experience in the offline world here. On the Internet we do rely on others to get the message out. To do things to attract bloggers especially, is a necessary part of online marketing success.

9. Internal focus groups
 
The company has started to get their employees together between the ages of 21 to 26 to throw ideas around about things they can do to the site to make it more compelling to users.

These are all things we can learn from at Bud.TV's expense. It shows how deep-pocketed companies that have reputations for innovation in the marketing arena can make so many basic mistakes when trying to apply their former way of doing things to the Internet.

We need to filter what we are doing through these specific changes, as most of them will apply to online marketers, no matter what particular field we serve. Obviously each one needs to be tailored for each unique demographic. For example, to be edgy on a site for young mothers wouldn't make sense. But still, being edgy, along with the other things mentioned can be part of any site, has to be defined in relationship to the demographic we serve.