Youtube succeeded because it was easy, easy to upload content, easy to share, easy to embed on your myspace profile. Bud.tv on the other hand makes it so hard to actually log in that even well worn internet users (like me), who are well over 18 (i’m 37) can’t log in because Bud.tv appears to be trying to match DOB information with a drivers license database. The funniest thing is that they obviously knew that the age verification thing is flaky because they actually offered and Interactive Voice Response phone number to help me through it, obviously Bud.tv doesn’t know that I would rather stick needles in my eyes than voluntarily call a IVR so I can log into a web site of unknown quality or interest.
Oh and I’ve heard that it’s not that great anyway, boy, way to suck all the air out of your own hype Budweiser. You can read some of my own breathless hype about bud.tv here (by me)
I thought the same thing Karl! It took me a few minutes to figure out that I’d have to go through too many hoops to register, I just gave up. I saw about as much as you did judging from the photo you have with this post!
I was laughing so much I got tears in my eyes. Thanks!!
Anheuser-Busch will spend over $30 million this year on this online video network. The site would be on my top 10 in the usability category if the age verification actually worked.
Read more at http://joannapenabickley.typepad.com/on/2007/02/on_budtv.html
Always love it when marketers shoot themselves in the foot. This time they lost about 4 toes, I think. Like the original author, I am WELL over 21 and when I called and talked to a ‘live’ person, the experience was exasperating. The person was a moron and everything had to be repeated 4 times. All this to see a webisode of The Shield. The only shield I guess I need is from the so-called marketers who devised Bud.TV. This Bud? It’s not for you…OR me!!