• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 1, 2007

Anheuser-Busch has enlisted the help of New Media Strategies, an online intelligence monitoring company, to tap into the tastes and behaviors of digital content consumers.

The belated move--confirmed by several sources close to the deal--is part of a larger effort to save Anheuser's struggling entertainment network, Bud.TV, which launched three months ago to great fanfare but has since failed to deliver.

"We have to engage consumers better than we have," said Jim Schumacher, Anheuser's former vice president of creative development who heads the digital marketing team overseeing Bud.TV. (Tony Ponturo, Anheuser's vice president for global media and sports marketing, and Schumacher's boss, was not available for this story.)

Owned by Meredith Corp., New Media Strategies is part of that new breed of brand consultants that are closely measuring and monitoring online buzz, digital word-of-mouth, and blog activity to glean greater insights into consumer sentiments online.

Although not quite final, Bud.TV program changes now in planning include a focus on shorter, punchier clips; a greater effort to circulate clips online through partnerships with major content hubs; and new social-networking features.

Bud.TV has performed poorly for months, but its architects came under intensified scrutiny last week when August Busch IV, Anheuser-Busch's chief executive, said Bud.TV would "probably fade" during a conference call with investors.

Anheuser grabbed the attention of marketers and the media last year when it unveiled a $30 million plan to challenge Hollywood with a branded digital entertainment network. But as the network languished following a splashy Super Bowl debut, Madison Avenue was left trying to figure out where Bud.TV went wrong.

In March, the number of unique visitors to the site dropped 40% to 152,000 from February, according to comScore. Even worse, traffic to the site in April was too low to be measured.

Anheuser's marketing team insists that August Busch's comments were misinterpreted, but they do admit Bud.TV is in trouble.

"We should have had shorter content right out of the gate--the 'wow' stuff that generates a lot of buzz," Schumacher said, adding that Anheuser was wrong to assume people would make the effort to visit Bud.TV.

"The odds of making it a come-and-view situation could have worked, but not with a high probability," he said. "We should have understood the whole architecture of the Internet from a marketing standpoint."

So what does Anheuser gain from working with New Media Strategies?

Chiefly, it will help the beer maker engage more fully with audiences online, says Pete Blackshaw, former brand manager and Internet marketer at Procter & Gamble and present chief marketing officer for Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

"Big brands like Anheuser are experimenting with online engagement, but it's only a half measure when you're not hearing your audience," said Blackshaw.

"[Big brands] have always lacked the agility to adapt to a campaign's early signals," Blackshaw added. "What they haven't yet grasped is that you can do that online--it's one of the Web's biggest advantages."

Despite the effort to save Bud.TV, Schumacher admits its success is uncertain.

"We haven't figured out how to successfully distribute this content yet," Schumacher said. "They wanted us to take a risk, and we're definitely taking a risk."