Bud.tv traffic slows quickly after Super Bowl buzz

The buzz that bud.tv created during the Super Bowl seems to have fizzled out as the number of visitors to the site fails to meet expectations.

by Helen Leggatt

The forecasted figures, hoped to be achieved by the end of this year, are a far cry from the reported 253,000 visitors during February.

Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser branded site, which features a collection of short comedy sketches aimed at twenty-something males, was forecast to attract between two to three million visitors per month by the end of the year. With February's figures standing at just 253,000 it hasn't got off to the best of starts in its launch month.

Over a quarter of a million visitors in a site’s launch month isn’t a failure in most people's books, and during the week after the Super Bowl it was reporting peak traffic of around 20,000 hits per day. But, many visitors didn’t get past the registration page, a legal requirement to ensure those who are not of drinking age are denied access to the site, which would no doubt have hampered its viral appeal.

In fact, only around 800 to 1,000 visitors registered a day during peak traffic times. After the first three weeks the traffic had dropped to around 15,000 visitors a week, with just one third registering.

Another factor that might be considered when analyzing the disappointing traffic statistics might be AB’s decision to focus its Super Bowl ad activity around the likes of YouTube, where commercials from the game were being shown, rather than grasping the opportunity to drive surfers to Bud.tv.