Beer and sports are natural accompaniments. It is widely known that beer companies rely on sports to help encourage beer sales and attendees at sporting events and viewers of sports on television do not need to look far to see and hear the names of specific brands of beer.
Among the brands promoted at sporting events, Anheuser- Busch InBev is the brewer whose advertisements are most widely seen so it may not come as a surprise to discover that the so- called “king of beers” is considering promoting its name through a somewhat different but related marketing channel. Starting in January, 2012, Anheuser- Busch InBev is going to sponsor its own reality program. Titled Budweiser: The Big Time, this reality program is going to focus on competitions in different sports and in different activities.
Now, what exactly would encourage Budweiser to sponsor a reality television program? Well, according to official sources, Budweiser wants to entertain sports fans who miss their Sunday afternoon of football by presenting competitions of a slightly different sort. Instead of pounding a sixteen ounce Budweiser following an opening kickoff, sports fans can sip on bottle of Bud while they partake in reality program depicting amateurs just like you and me competing in soccer, baseball, and even in non- sporting events such as cooking. As our non- professional reality stars aim to be the best, Budweiser will make sure to display its logo at every opportunity. The show will premier on ABC and while it won’t be permitted to show an individual taking an actual swig from a Budweiser can or bottle, the company can do just about anything else to promote the brand.
Okay, so Budweiser wants to entertain us and practically every other reality television concept has been tried, so is Budweiser: The Big Time necessarily such a bad idea? It certainly wouldn’t be fair to judge a program without first watching a few episodes and the sample video clips I have found on the internet cannot be used to properly asses the show because they are too brief and more than likely present only the best the show has to offer (much like any short advertisement for a new program would do). Thus, I will preserve making any final judgment until a later date.
Regardless of the program’s merits, however, I cannot help but speculate that the true motive behind the show is the simple idea of marketing. Budweiser hasn’t come out and said that this isn’t the main reason for the show, but there is every reason to suspect that it is. According to sales statistics, Budweiser as a brand is in a major slump. Its sales are way down and its market share isn’t even close to what it was during its peak years. Brand managers are probably searching for something, anything, to improve name recognition and drive sales higher. And since reality television is so popular, someone over there at Anheuser- Busch InBev headquarters decided that Budweiser: The Big Time could offer the needed exposure and produce the boost in sales that Budweiser so vitally needs.
As I said, I won’t pass judgment on the show until I see it, but I just don’t see how displaying the Budweiser name over and over, in the background, on clothing, on signs, etc., is going to encourage people to purchase the beer. The show sounds more like a sixty- minute advertisement with some silly fun going on in the background than an actual television program. Sure, I can see Budweiser attempting to “spice” up the show with hot women and edgy material, but I still don’t see how this will necessarily translate into higher sales for Budweiser. I already see the Budweiser logo saturating the spaces at ballparks and arenas across America and it has never encouraged me to make a purchase.
Anheuser- Busch InBev calls Budweiser: The Big Time an amateur competition to entertain sports fans. I call it an act of desperation and even if the show lasts through the remainder of the television season, I will be surprised if it succeeds in the way the company hopes.
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