My group did a presentation on Red Bull and I figured I'd share our paper with some of you. Red Bull isn't just about the energy drink anymore but it's about the strength and energy that the label represents. Red Bull is associated with certain sports, but not many people that Red Bull is involved with other industries such as music, film, production, entertainment, and more. So take a look at some of the many things that Red Bull has to offer! Don't miss out!
In the mid-1980s, “tonic drinks” became popular throughout the Far East. While sitting at a bar at the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong, Dietrich Mateschitz came up with the idea to market these drinks and later created the formula of Red Bull Energy Drink and developed the marketing concept of Red Bull in 1984. The Red Bull headquarters are based in Fuschl am See, Austria. On April 1, 1987, the Austrian market started selling Red Bull Energy Drink.
As the drink became more popular, Red Bull began to sponsor extreme sports challenges. The first sponsored sports relay was in Lienz, Australia, the Red Bull Dolomitenmann, a marathon event with a combination of mountain running, paragliding, kayaking and mountain biking. In 1989, Red Bull sponsored their first Motorsports athlete, Gerhard Berger, a Formula 1 driver. In 1992, the first Red Bull Flugtag challenge was introduced to Austria.
In 1992, Leonardo became the very first Red Bull cartoon spot. The creative agency Kastner & Partners established the beginning of the Red Bull cartoon campaign strategy: “a well-known character, event or subject, to which a broad audience can relate, is found in a ‘larger than life’ story with an unexpected twist.”
Red Bull took an interest in the music industry starting in 1998 when they held their first Red Bull Music Academy event in Berlin, Germany. It was an international music event and workshop for new and up-and-coming producers, singers, arrangers, DJs and musicians. In 2007, Red Bull launched several media companies. Red Bull Records opened up in Santa Monica, California to create a progressive approach to marketing, distribution and artist relationships. That same year, the first Red Bull Studio was introduced in Los Angeles, California, a state of the art recording facility that was created to support musicians with a unique recording experience. The other studios to follow are located in London, Auckland, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Madrid and Copenhagen. In Salzburg, Austria, Red Bull Media House was launched as a multi-platform media company with a focus on sports, culture and lifestyle, which later offered premium media products across media channels such as TV, mobile, digital, audio and print. Today, with the modern technological innovations, aspiring musicians can submit their demos to Red Bull Records.
In 2007, Red Bull also introduced Red Bull Soundclash, a musical face off featuring two bands or artists of different genres where the audience chooses the winner. After the success of Soundclash, Red Bull decided to create other musical competitions. Red Bull Thre3style was first introduced in Canada and is now a big sensation with regional and national competitions throughout the world. The audience gets to dance until the early morning while the contestants compete. Red Bull just keeps expanding their knowledge and interest in different areas of media today, even different styles of dance and expression.
In the current world of instant gratification and ease of access, Red Bull has been stepping up their game when it comes to getting their product to their audience. In 2004, Red Bull started the Red Bull BC One bboying tournament. The tournament is a 1 on 1, knockout style event where world renowned bboys would go head to head against each other to find out who is the top bboy in the world. For the first two years, Red Bull would produce DVD’s to distribute. However, in 2006, they stopped making the DVD’s and instead made the videos available for free on their website, redbullbcone.com. If you go on, they sort the videos by popularity or newness. Some videos go back to 2005, while the newest one is from 2 weeks ago.
In addition to BC One, Red Bull has entered the free running scene with their Art of Motion competition. Just as the BC One is an annual bboying event, the Art of Motion is an annual free running and parkour competition hosted by Red Bull. It started in 2007 in Vienna, Austria, and has since helped grow the free running scene around the world. On September 29, 2012, the event was held at the Santorini Islands in Greece. Red Bull stepped up what it meant to deliver instant gratification by live streaming the 2 hour event. People from around the world tuned in as 16 of the world’s top free runners faced each other in the competition. After the event, Red Bull also made the stream available on demand on their Redbull.tv website.
On the Red Bull Media House website, the company shows their focus on films. The Terra Mater Factual Studios was launched with Red Bull Media House in 2007. The studios, based in Vienna, are the primary source of film production for Red Bull. Their films focus on reality and development aside from action films. With the use of state-of-the-art technology, films are shot in HD with excellent quality.
Aside from film, Red Bull has also introduced print media to their viewers. The Red Bulletin started in Austria and has publications in several countries with their respective languages. The publications, which can be seen on mobile devices through iPad and Android apps, portray action, sports, culture, travel and music. Two publications that originated in Austria are distributed on a monthly basis; the Terra Mater, which features a nature and scientific view and the Seitenblickice, featuring articles about entertainment and celebrities.
The basis of Red Bull’s mentality has been focused on adrenaline and progression of lifestyle, regardless of sport or interest. The unique flair of total brand merchandising has allowed Red Bull the ability to reach the far corners of niche markets, while maintaining a forward and positive image. While most beverage companies focus strictly on their product, Red Bull focuses on allowing their expansive market base and athletes to promote the product for them through their individual athletes, as ambassadors to the sport and lifestyle.
The largest and most successful marketing tactic Red Bull has used to their advantage is the spectrum of multimedia and subtle advertisement. Red Bull has capitalized on three major media spectrums: print, visual, and most recently for the newest generation, social. In 1984, when Red Bull GmH Inc., first got its wings, it relied heavily the basic aspects and involvement of total brand merchandising, display, free samples, event integration and promotion. While its earliest attempts at product integration in the triathlon and marathon market nearly failed, Red Bull was saved by most angelic of angels and saints, the action sports market (commonly known as extreme sports). What ensured the safety blanket to stay was the ingredients of Red Bull’s product went hand in hand with the effects and side effects of action sports participation. Whether an athlete is skydiving at night from 16,000AGL or landing a textbook triple cork 1440, regardless if the individual is a seasoned profession or not, adrenaline dumps occur, leaving the individual crashed, lethargic, and inattentive to due to the massive sensory overload in the participation of the discipline. Red Bull was originally developed to aid with jet lag for the professional traveler, but the developers found it was a temporary remedy to keep an individual going when there was still work to do and fun to be had. Essentially, this drove the company to modify its market focus to a more sustainable and diverse audience, relying strictly on print media to aid in its expansion. Comparing the Disney model of total brand merchandising, Red Bull used market analytics to assess the situation for sustainability.
As the 1990’s rolled around, Red Bull had become international with the aid of the action sports industry. Red Bull has three sports to thank for its initial foundation, snowboarding, Formula 1, and MotoGP and World Superbike (WSBK). In the early 1990’s snowboarding was just getting on its feet, many expressed the opinion that it was sport that wouldn’t last, and due to the aggressive dislike of the skiing community, only a select number of resorts allowed snowboarders due to their image. Red Bull invested heavy interest in the then (extreme) Big Mountain riders until the late 1990’s. Formula and MotoGP/ WSBK however, pumped an immortal youth to Red Bull and its market as a whole. While superbike racing and Formula 1 remained mostly unpopular in the United States, its worldwide circuit allowed for Red Bull to market its product worldwide by marketing its product on the sides of race cars and bikes. As its popularity grew more money was invested into their teams, eventually placing them at the podium for a majority of the seasons. The fact that Red Bull essentially used other mediums to “race” to the top and then advertise was phenomenal. This technique allowed Red Bull a unique advantage over its traditional soft drink competitors, sponsor the best and the rest will follow. In 2005 when MotoGP returned to the US after 11 years, it sponsored the largest US Grand Prix in history, The Red Bull Grand Prix at Laguna Seca 2005. With the return of such a prestigious event Red Bull covered the race venue in a sea of silver and blue, allowing a new stream of revenue for an old market in a forgotten land. NBC televised the event due to its international popularity, allowing for Red Bull to utilize the television-broadcasting medium for product advertisement delivery.
From 2005 on, Red Bull focused on large name events to attract spectators and eventually costumers. Since 2005 Red Bull has produced internationally known events such as the Flugtag, X-Fighters, Air Race, USGP, Supernatural and Ultranatural. In 2012 Red Bull “launched” itself into history by going to space. On a Sunday morning in October 2012, Red Bull athlete and BASE Jumping pioneer, Felix Baumgartner, set three world records. First, the highest manned balloon capsule ascent, Second, the highest skydive in history at 128,100AGL, and third, the first human to break the without the aid of a vehicle. Not only did Red Bull go to space, they broadcasted it streaming live around the globe. Approximately the jump was shown by more than 40 TV stations and 130 digital outlets. Red Bull's jump photo of Baumgartner just as he leaped from this capsule earned him over 216,000 likes, 10,000 comments and over 29,000 shares within the first 45minutes of his exit from the aircraft, in addition to of half the worldwide trending topics on Twitter were related to #redbullstratos. It would be safe to say Red Bull has dominated the social media market as well.
With these successes, Red Bull is now pursuing telecommunications spectrum with their own cellular service Red Bull Mobile, which is now available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, and South Africa.
By: Klaire Trajano, Jackie Tacotaco, Michael Colon- Yoshimoto, Kenny Cabanting, Alex Holt
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