Bud.tv launchs

At least the entry page is widely available. As a public service I am going to let the Bud.tv team in on a little secret.

Guy: "The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption"

"1. Enforced immediate registration. Requiring a new user to register and provide a modicum of information is a reasonable request—I just think you should do it after you’ve sucked the person in. Most sites require that registration is the first step, and this puts a barrier in front of adoption. At the very least, companies could ask for name and email address but not require it until a later time."

Ok, so now that's out of the way, here is the registration screen:

I didn't really want to actually sign up with a user name and password for yet another site that I may not ever come back to, but I did just so I could see it.

Maybe not:

So they are hitting some database to verify DOB and Zip Codes. Really?

I signed up to get the launch notice and I used the same email address when I tried to register. No email from Bud.tv to help me with the registration process.

Way to go Bud.tv - "log in or lose out!"

From the NYT:

"But Bud.TV is striving to be more than a repository for Budweiser ads and lighthearted, slightly mocking beer-commercial humor; Schumacker and his team are aiming to redefine what an online entertainment network and marketer-created content can mean in a short-attention-span world.

Bud.TV represents Anheuser-Busch’s search for a toehold in a world where the traditional advertising model revolving around 30-second ads has been sideswiped by technological change and the proliferation of entertainment choices. The company, like almost every big marketer, is also trying to seize on the video-sharing democratization of YouTube, albeit on its own controlling terms.

It’s an expensive undertaking — it’s expected to cost more than $30 million in its first year — and one that could be mistaken for creative hubris."