By Jeremy Mullman and T.L. Stanley
CHICAGO—Cue the clydesdales: Anheuser-Busch is getting into the content business.
The country’s largest brewer is launching its own in-house film and TV production company that will make humorous shorts and sitcom-type programs to be broadcast over the Internet and to cell phones, according to four people familiar with the matter, and could branch into full-length films.
While A-B has dabbled in content before-particularly in sports TV, where its Bud Productions division recently produced National Football League preseason games for the St. Louis Rams—this initiative is believed to be the brewer’s most ambitious by far. Funding will likely be drawn from its $1.56 billion marketing budget.
Earlier this summer, A-B pulled its Vice President of Creative Development Jim Schumacher—its top in-house creative—out of the advertising department and into the new production group. “The fact that Schu is leading this means they’re serious about it,” said one person familiar with his new assignment. “They wouldn’t be wasting his time otherwise.”
A-B has also assigned Michael Gianino, senior director of branded entertainment, to a unit devoted to producing online content. Gianino previously worked on A-B’s product-placement deal for New Line Cinema’s “Wedding Crashers,” starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, which was the brewer’s first Hollywood venture in 14 years. Since then, it’s been increasingly star-struck, sponsoring Vaughn’s comedy tour and tapping Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney for voice-overs on Budweiser Select spots.
At press time, it was unclear whether Schumacher and Gianino are working together or on separate content-creation units.
Asked about the division and the assignments, an A-B spokesman said: “We’re always looking for new ways to reach beer drinkers through innovative means of communications, but it’s our practice to not comment on rumors and speculation.”
By investing heavily in producing its own content, $15.5 billion A-B is following closely in the footsteps of other megamarketers. Last winter, PepsiCo produced the snowboarding documentary “First Descent” through its Mountain Dew Films unit. And Starbucks Corp., which last year partnered with Lions Gate Films to market “Akeelah and the Bee,” intends to co-produce more features with Hollywood studios.
Marketers’ march into content creation has not gone unnoticed by the $5 billion-plus production industry. “Too many marketers view production as a commodity, when the expertise to do it well isn’t easily learned,” said Matt Miller, president and CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers. “Agencies and marketers have always run into limitation when it comes to the creative product. The expertise and talent suffers.”
A-B to date has dabbled with one-offs, such as “Bud TV,” an online production it promoted with a commercial during February’s Super Bowl. Now it appears to be gearing up to produce a steady stream of original content.
“They’ve made it clear that they think the future is online, and I think we’re going to see a lot of short films and sitcom-type stuff,” said California-based A-B distributor Mike Fox. “A lot of us wholesalers have been pushing for them to do more entertainment stuff for awhile.”
Fox said distributors have also been pushing A-B to use its theme parks, including Sea World and Busch Gardens, to host and produce concert events that could be powerful marketing tools.
Jeremy Mullman and T.L. Stanley are reporters for AdAge, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
