As Bud.TV Goes Belly-Up, an Adidas Video Channel Emerges

A week after Anheuser-Busch pulled the plug on an online branded entertainment offering called Bud.TV, Adidas has launched a similar “brand platform” called adidas.tv. Those involved insist adidas.tv will not share Bud.TVs sad fate.

Adidas.TVwas created and managed by San Francisco digital ad agency Evolution Bureau (EVB). On the site, users find a collection of Adidas videos produced by a number of agency partners. The videos are divided into channels featuring several sports categories including soccer, basketball and tennis. There is also a channel based on Adidas’ Originals apparel.

In announcing adidas.TV, a spokesperson was quick to point to the ways it differs from Anheuser-Busch’s now-dark channel.

“Bud.tv was very serendipitously removed,” she said. “It was trying to pull people to come to the site and that ended up not being very successful. Ironically, adidas is now launching adidas.TV…but their goal is to make it portable, bring it to people and not make it such a destination.”

Bud.TV, introduced the day after the Super Bowl in 2007, died in large part because it did not allow anytime/anywhere consumption. There was also the expensive matter of coming up with a steady stream of content.

EVB CEO Daniel Stein said the Adidas effort should succeed where Bud.TV failed because “The point is less about getting people to the site. It’s more about getting the content to the people. It’s all about sharing the content.”

Stein also noted the Internet allows people to watch video when and where they want, so adidas.tv “is based around the idea that lunchtime is the new prime-time.” Stein said the site is unlikely to suffer from an unavailability of material.

“People have gone to Adidas for sports-related content forever,” he said. “A lot of this content would have been created anyway, whether through TV commercials or documentaries. This is a centralized way to distribute it all.”