Red Bull Gives You Streams
At my place, Red Bull Rampage is awaited with eagerness. Alarms are set and early bedtimes adhered to so that live streaming of the freeride mountain biking event can be watched bleary-eyed at an absurd hour of the morning. This is possibly an unheard of event outside the mountain biking community. One Yahoo news report referred to Cam Zink’s crash at Rampage as ‘BMX riders’ spectacular crash’ suggesting that either Yahoo news is poorly researched (shocking, I know) or that this is still an underground sport. Red Bull has a drive for creating events around sports that have had little media exposure in the past such as cliff diving, air racing and winter sports like ice-cross downhill and backcountry snowboarding. But why does Red Bull focus on relatively obscure sports and how does this strategy improve the success of the brand? Or as Wil Anderson asked on Gruen Planet recently, why does Red Bull want to own the extreme?
Red Bull is an Austrian company created in 1987 by Dietrich Mateschitz in partnership with the Thai producer of an energy drink called Krating Daeng, which translates literally as red bull. The company was the first to introduce the energy drink to a market flooded with Coca-Cola and Pepsi products, and the brand was built from there. Red Bull now has the largest share of the global energy drinks market and employs an effective marketing strategy. The brand has become heavily associated with the culture of extreme sport, and in addition to promoting less popular sports, also owns football and motorsport teams. This is where the company has employed a slightly different approach to many other brands. Red Bull has an active interest, as the company essentially owns the teams and events that carry their logo rather than being a sponsor. Red Bull’s approach is about brand equity, which is the concept in marketing that refers to the added value endowed to a product or service. The brand transcends culture, sport and corporation with diverse events, which have recently grown to include non-sporting events such as the Red Bull music academy and a foray into the world of gaming thorough a partnership with PlayStation.
However, extreme sport is the link between the brand’s identity and its consumer. The focus with Red Bull seems to be about an experience rather than a product and the strategy is proving to be hugely successful. After Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking space jump, which reportedly garnered over 100 million viewers, Red Bull’s profit soared and the company is expected to be worth around £5bn. Though it appears to be making an assertive takeover of the extreme sports world, Red Bull’s approach is forming a brand culture in a market that has increasing consumer resistance. A large percentage of the company’s revenue is spent on creating events, sponsoring extreme sportspeople and the ownership of sports teams. The company spends comparatively little on traditional forms of advertising although I’m sure we’ve all seen the T.V. commercials proclaiming that ‘Red Bull gives you wings’.
One of the most successful strategies has been to stream Red Bull events live meaning that wherever you are in the world, as long as you have a fast internet connection, you can sit on the edge of your seat and watch men and women attempt the impossible. And that’s a part of the lure. Extreme sport from a spectator’s point of view, is exciting, captivating and perhaps even energising because there is always that fear that something could go wrong, and it often does.
Undeniably the brand has been successful in its ambition to own the extreme; consumers’ desire to participate in that extreme world that has been the driving force behind the success. Participation may take the form of watching live events like Rampage but does it really encourage consumers to pay for the product? A comment from one viewer after Rampage was streamed read that he was willing to show his appreciation by buying a case of Red Bull — but it would probably be poured down the sink as he didn’t like the taste. So while I don’t see myself becoming a dedicated Red Bull drinker anytime soon, it’s a brand that I admire for their experiential approach and fusion with sport culture.
