Red bull gives you wings
It is said that as of lately, we currently consume around 10,000 ads per day. With that being known, how do you as a company engage with your followers online without getting lost in the noise?
Well lets talk about how Red bull does it. Since launching in 1987, Red bull has managed to stay a top choice for energy drinks since then. It sold 12,128 billion cans in 2023 and shows no sign of slowing down. But how?
A key reason is through how they choose to engage with their customers. In our lives now we are overwhelmed with advertisement and for many (including myself) we shut off as soon as we see them. So, as a company, you need to find a way to interact and engage with your audience online without them immediately shutting off.
Red bull has found exactly that. Since launching they’ve always produced different marketing content.
When perusing Red Bull’s Instagram, most posts have around 50K likes which is incredible engagement especially for a brand. This is because Red Bull doesn’t post about its products at all.
Instead, Red Bull create videos with world class athletes pushing their limits, trying to set records and doing some very cool (very dangerous) stunts.
Each post from Red Bull has a unique twist on some sort of extreme sporting challenge whether that be diving from space or sleighing down hills as Santa!
As a customer myself, I can tell that Red Bull team has put a lot of thought and effort into these videos, especially the athletes who can take up to 300 tries to complete the challenge.
These authentic videos are much more appealing to watch then a video explaining why we should drink Red Bull. Red Bull genuinely like pushing the boundaries and creating interesting videos for their customers to watch. The authentic approach resonates well with their current audience standing at 19.8 million on Instagram.
Amongst Gen Z, authenticity is highly valued when it comes to brands engaging with customers. Twitter lately has become a place for brands to experiment with their voice. Wendy’s and Duolingo have achieved this by tweeting more like an individual, then a serious brand.
Red Bull have mastered Instagram, now they need to tackle Twitter.
Unfortunately, Red Bull lack engagement and activity on their account. Red Bull does try to engage with its followers by prompting them questions.
However, there doesn’t seem to be much follow through. I think this is why they are struggling. It lacks authenticity, why reply to one of Red Bulls tweets if they aren’t going to respond. Customers can see through the act and can tell Red Bull only care if you respond for their engagement not for authentic reasons.
Red Bull have a really strong brand but to further their digital presence they need to utilise all twitter has to offer. This can be done through them posting different types of media (videos) and interacting directly with customers through replies and hashtags.
