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A-B's latest marketing tool is a joke -- really(St. Louis Post-Dispatch (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 20--As young adults spend more and more time on the Internet, Anheuser-Busch Cos. aims to keep this generation's attention through its sponsorship of a new humor Web site. The country's largest brewer is sponsoring and providing its own humorous ads to a new Web site called Jokebox, the creation of brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis. The Spiridellis brothers are best known for their animated video clip, "This Land Is Your Land," that poked fun at President George W. Bush and his challenger, Sen. John Kerry, during the 2004 election. That clip, which catapulted the brothers into fame, also caught Anheuser-Busch's eye. Last year, A-B signed a deal with the brothers' firm JibJab Media Inc. to produce some ads for Budweiser. Located on www.jibjab.com, Jokebox highlights JibJab's past creations, such as a thinly veiled parody of retailer Wal-Mart that is called "Big Box Mart." But the main content is comprised of e-mail jokes, animation and video clips posted by the readers. After three months of beta-testing, the site went live on Monday. JibJab also will be providing content for Anheuser-Busch. Each week, www.budlight.com will highlight JibJab's 10 top-rated jokes, which will help drive traffic to that beer brand's Web site. PaidContent.org, a Web site covering digital media and content, reported earlier this year that Gregg Spiridellis described the new Web site as a mix between cable network Comedy Central and MySpace.Com, the Web site devoted to personal blogs and forums. Anheuser-Busch sees this new Web site as the perfect forum for Bud Light, which has long used humor to communicate the brand as young, fun and social. The brewer is Jokebox's exclusive alcohol sponsor and the site's main advertiser. "These guys have a unique way of taking that quirky humor that they have and gathering a large following," said Rick Leininger, Bud Light brand director. "Bud Light fits nicely into that." Linking Bud Light to a humor Web site makes a lot of sense, said Sally McMillan, an associate professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Not only are those Web site visitors already receptive to the brand, but they end up associating the brand with the pleasant experience of a joke, she said. "Building a brand is not just about getting sales or even getting a specific message across," McMillan said. "It's about making that brand part of our experience." The site also allows Anheuser-Busch to reach young adults who have been abandoning traditional media, such as radio and broadcast television, in favor of Internet and portable media devices like the iPod. "This online community is a little different consumer than, say, the 21- to 27-year-old who watches TV," Leininger said. "Once again, (we're) trying to broaden our audience with Bud Light." Traditional marketing techniques were created for the industrial economy, not this new information society, McMillan said. Though companies haven't yet figured out how to best market on the Internet or even how to gauge the effectiveness of such marketing, they have no choice but to use and experiment with digital media, she said. "If you don't, you risk becoming irrelevant," McMillan said. So far, the bulk of Jokebox readers are in A-B's core market. About 40 percent of the site's users are between the ages of 21 and 27; 83 percent of all users are over 21, according to A-B. Meanwhile, Anheuser- Busch's own Bud Light advertising will take a prominent space on Jokebox. This blurring of advertising and content isn't unique. Bud Light's humor has led some consumers to eagerly await the Super Bowl ad spots or buy recordings of Real Men of Genius, the radio ads that belittle such odd occupations as "carb-counter." The most recent example is the fictional character "Ted Ferguson: Bud Light Daredevil," who performs such "dangerous" feats as shopping with his girlfriend during the playoffs. Leininger added that A-B is considering the possibility of offering new advertising on Jokebox. |