Red Bulls game changing approach to sports marketing

Twelve years ago the highest-selling energy drink in the world, Red Bull, decided to buy a Formula One team. At the time it was viewed as a short-term marketing stunt and somewhat of a pet project for Red Bulls billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz.

Twelve years later from the takeover, Red Bull have become one of the most successful teams in the sport. Three years ago, at the end of 2013, they claimed their fourth successive Drivers Championship and Constructors Championship, no mean feat for a company who were relatively new to the sport.

These days, chances are if you were to tune into almost any action or extreme sport you’d be likely to come across a Red Bull logo. It’s recently been reported that Red Bull are looking to purchase an English football club, with Swindon Town FC being the club in question.

This wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the company, most famously known for their “Red Bull Gives You Wings” advertising campaign, as they currently precede over five football teams throughout the world.

In 2005, Red Bull bought the Austrian club SV Austria Salzburg and renamed it to Red Bull Salzburg. The same year they also purchased the MetroStars, a team in MLS who represented New York City, and rebranded the franchise as the New York Red Bulls.

Two years later they established the lower-division Red Bull Brasil team, who are based in Sao Paulo and most recently purchased the football licence of the German fifth division club SSV Markranstadt, near Leipzig, and renamed them Red Bull Leipzig for the 2009–10 season onwards.

The aim for RB Leipzig was to reach the Bundesliga, the country’s first division, within 10 years and this season that goal was achieved. The club are currently joint top of the Bundesliga alongside the footballing giants Bayern Munich, so I guess you could say job done.

Alongside the success stories there has been one blot for Red Bull when it comes to their endeavours in the footballing world and that was their Red Bull Ghana team and academy which was founded in 2008 and subsequently abolished in 2014.

A move into the lucrative English football market is undoubtedly hugely attractive for the brand. The Premier League is the holy grail for a lot of football clubs and who’s to argue against the Red Bull juggernaut taking a club like Swindon Town FC, maybe rebranded as Red Bull Swindon FC, to the top end of the Premier League alongside clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea?

So how does an energy drink company that only began in 1987 end up becoming one of the most recognisable brands in sport today?

Since Red Bull first launched in Austria, the marketing has been sport focused. They initially started with a one-year sponsorship of an Austrian football team and first entered the motor sports world with their support of Gerhard Berger in 1989.

When the brand decided to launch in America they had a key involvement in action sports, such as motocross, skateboarding, surfing along with BMX-ing. Red Bull also decided to align themselves with some of the most talented young athletes. In 2013, the Red Bull sponsored Marc Marquez became the youngest ever MotoGP World Champion.

Carissa Moore is an American professional surfer who has claimed the world title three times, all whilst under the sponsorship of Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel is probably Red Bulls biggest success story when it comes to their sponsorship of young athletes. Before making the move to Ferrari, Vettel became a four-time Formula One World Champion whilst racing for Red Bull and in 2010 he became the youngest ever driver to win the Drivers’ World Championship at the grand old age of 23.

The backing of some of the best young athletes in their chosen fields has clearly helped to propel Red Bull to the top and establishing themselves in sport has been one of the keys to Red Bull’s continuing success.

Compared to other brands that advertise within sports, Red Bull haven’t just advertised, they have become involved. Sports fans have been continuously treated to fresh new content from Red Bull whether fit be a video series following some of their sponsored athletes through a season of competition or the much discussed record-breaking stratosphere defying jump from space by Felix Baumgartner.

They don’t just use sport as a way to create value for their consumers, they look to do the ams for athletes and their chosen sports. Events created and supported by Red Bull include the Red Bull Soapbox Race, the X-Fighters Global Freestyle Motocross Tour along with the Red Bull Roll the Dice snowboarding event.

Cashing in on successful athletes or certain sports in general hasn’t been a part of Red Bull’s aim. They’ve obviously gained global recognition and made millions, if not billions but they have invested time, money and ideas to both develop and promote sports that sit within the Red Bull lifestyle, or what they actually refer to as The World of Red Bull, and they have put themselves in a very unique position as one of the most recognisable brands throughout a variety of different sports.

It’s hard to argue against what Red Bull have done in such a short space of time. It’s certainly one of the best examples of how content marketing works: create your own valuable content that will help to tell stories and in return help build loyalty.

Could the next success story for Red Bull be at Swindon’s County Ground? It’s not too hard to imagine when you see what they’ve achieved at other clubs throughout the world. Slightly harder to imagine is fans enjoying a half-time pie and a can of sugar-free Red Bull.