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Brand In Focus

Red Bull

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Red Bull Brand In Focus

This month we’re diving into the history of one of the world's most famous drinks brands, that not only created the energy drink category but also invented an entirely new marketing concept… Oh and the best part? They’re actually not even a drinks manufacturer! 

How They Started

In 1984 Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz travelled to Thailand and discovered a drink that at the time was advertised as a jetlag aid called Krating Daeng. It’s safe to say he loved the drink and saw huge potential because ‘spoiler alert!’ the english translation of krating daeng is… Red Bull! 


Mateschitz licensed the product from its Thai manufacturer and spent the next three years coming up with a way to launch his new found super drink to the western market creating a marketing campaign, branding ideas and playing with the recipe which includes carbonating it (Yeah the Red Bull in Thailand was flat, we shudder thinking about it too). 


On April 1st 1987 the Red Bull we know today, was launched to the European market. At least it was in Austria as it didn’t make it to Germany until ‘94 and only graced our shores in the U.K in 1995. Secretly manufactured in Thailand with the original, it was labeled an energy drink that gives you wings. 


*This was later changed to wiiings, with three i’s because a guy in America sued them for $13 Million for false advertising after drinking it for ten years and not growing actual wings.

How They Grew It

One year later Mateschitz kicked off the beginning of a marketing concept that has revolutionised how, his product in particular, managed to sell 8 billion cans in 2020 alone!

 

In 1988 Red Bull held its first event; the Red Bull Dolomitenmann. An extreme relay race which consists of running up a mountain, paragliding off of it, cycling around it and then jumping off of it again but this time it’s a seven metre vertical drop in a kayak, so when you hit the water you can immediately start canoeing upstream to the finish line. What a time to be alive! Red Bull expertly branded the entire thing giving away free drinks and making sure you were never out of sight of their unique and cutting edge new product.


This is where they really start cooking! Advertising themselves as an energy drink they knew the best place to be featured is in the extreme sports world but they knew, being such a new drink concept, adverts in magazines were just not going to cut it, so instead of paying for big full page ads (remember it was the early 90’s so people still read magazines) they sponsored the athletes that would feature on the front pages, making sure they were holding a can of Red Bull or wearing their now famously branded sports wear and equipment. 


They began to dominate with the teenage skater demographic and set their sights on the next group. This time a little more mature, they jumped into the motorsport circuit and sponsored their first Formula One driver, Austrian legend, Gerhard Berger a 10x Grand Prix winner that was well known and admired by all that followed the sport. This secured Red Bull’s second high energy key demographic. 

How They're Smashing It

After building a huge following from their success of sponsoring the who’s who of extreme and motor sport athletes along with the sponsorship of some unbelievably loved events like the Red Bull Soap Box Race, they turned to the next chapter of their strategy that has ultimately secured them a spot in the marketing hall of fame and this came with the 2007 launch of the Red Bull Media House. A globally distributed multi-platform media company that works with partners across TV, digital, mobile, audio and print to create award winning campaigns and disruptive stunts to maintain their dominance in their industry.


The first stunt on the agenda was a cheeky little skydive… from space!

On 14th October 2012 Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a pod from the edge of space plummeting back down to Earth faster than the speed of sound. The Red Bull Stratos mission broke records for what seemed like everything it was associated with. It broke three skydive records and its unbelievable popularity in social media, which at the time was relatively new, helped it break records throughout the marketing industry. They put out live footage of the incredible feat through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Google+ & YouTube as well as on their own website, 280 digital partners and 80 TV stations in 50 countries costing a staggering total of $73million on ‘measured media’. 


The social media numbers spoke for themselves with data exploding across every platform… YouTube reported that at its highest point there were more than 8 million livestreams, breaking the record at the time of 500,000 set by the London Olympics. 22,000 pictures about the Stratos mission were uploaded to Instagram and a single Facebook photo post received over 1 million likes! Overall 820,000 pieces of positive content were made across social media channels which was a 400% increase over the average length of consumer engagement and an impressive total count of over 61 million social media impressions were recorded. 


So it cost a lot, did it pay off? Quick answer… Yes! 

Straight after the Stratos mission Red Bull sales grew by 7% in the US and 17% overall for the year of 2012 with sales of over 5.2billion cans it was an increase of can sales of 13% over 2011. They achieved something no brand had ever done before and they did it all without needing to even mention their actual product. 


The Red Bull Media House have continued to create ambitious and disruptive campaigns since then including huge exclusive partnership deals with GoPro and securing their marketing strategy as one of the most respected of any other FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) brand.

Final Thoughts

The brand has now sold over 75 billion cans since their launch in ‘87 delivering a net worth to Dietrich Mateschitz of $28.2 billion making him the 40th richest person in the world. Their ongoing disruptive campaigns have ensured that although they have had many competitors follow in their footsteps and mimic their strategy they are still the number one energy drink in the world and remember they did all that without even making the stuff!