How much do you want to know about Red Bull marketing? Because in this article you will learn 10 lessons you can use in your own company.
What makes a company great when it comes to marketing and digital advertising? Well, it depends on what their goals are and of course, their expectations, based on the strategies developed to attract sales, grow awareness or help the branding process and brand development.
It depends also on how the public perceives the campaigns and the company as well.
For this article, I have chosen one of the best examples of the past decade in marketing and digital media distribution: Red Bull.
The choice was based on their strategies but also on their success and of course, on the fact that this is a rather new company, with less than three decades of history. Why is this fact important?
The more history a company has, the easier is to market the brand and grow awareness on it. However, relatively new brands and companies, have to start everything from scratch and build their brand awareness step by step.
Thus, Red Bull’s example is relevant in today’s context, as they have a little history to base their marketing strategies upon but at the same time, a lot of enthusiasm and some of the greatest ideas this industry has to offer until now. We’ll learn about what makes them a great media company but first, let’s start with some basic facts and learn a few things about the company and the brand.
Who is Red Bull?
Created in 1987, Red Bull is an energy drink sold by an Austrian company with the same name.
It has the highest market share of an energy drink in the world, with more than five billion cans sold every year.
How did it all start?
First, they’ve created awareness through their specific slogan “Red Bull gives you wings“, which I am sure all of you are aware of.
Then, they generated awareness through proprietary extreme sports events and traditional sports events by organizing competitions and sponsoring/acquiring sports teams that were popular among the fans of different team sports such as soccer.
Now you can check out their milestone and see everything they’ve done since 1987.
1. Red Bull Media House
2. How Red Bull uses social media
3. Red Bull identity
4. Red Bull content marketing
5. Red Bull Print – The Red Bulleting
6. They market freedom and give people exactly what they want
7. They inspire people to pursue their dreams
8. User-Generated Content
9. They know how to leverage influencer marketing as well
10. Red Bull Advertising + Event/Content Projects
Red Bull has taken over the marketing industry and managed to transform the way we think about marketing and create our own campaigns and strategies.
With this article, I will try to pinpoint their most valuable ideas and list all the things that make Red Bull one of the most powerful media companies and of course, the ultimate marketing inspirational brand of today’s online and offline environments:
If you want to build a solid and enduring house, you need to start with its foundation and carefully place each piece of brick in its place up to the roof.
This is what Red Bull did over the past few years.
What is Red Bull media house? Ten years ago, Red Bull created their own media companies to deal with their marketing strategies and the distribution of premium digital content. It was a huge success as the company is today one of the leading names in the World’s marketing industry.
Who owns Red Bull Media House?
In fact, Red Bull TV, part of Media House has won this year’s Google Play Award for Best TV Experience at the 2017 Google I/O Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The Red Bull Media House is divided in Products, Content and Commercial Projects.
A. PRODUCTS
A. 1. Print
A. 2. TV
A. 3. Online
A. 4. Mobile
A. 5. Music
A. 6. Games
A. 7. Cinema
A. 8. Books
B. CONTENT
B.1. Moving Images
B.2. Still Images
B.3. Red Bull Content
B.4. Music
B.5. News
Every company who wants to create successful marketing campaign needs a social media presence and Red Bull knows that. Red Bull Media House is a great company but you also need social media content, communication, and a social media strategy.
Their strategy is ingenious but at the same time simple:
Through their media companies, they produce content.
What about their presence on social media? What types of content do they share with their fans and customers?
Facebook: More than 48 million people liked Red Bull’s Facebook page. This is an impressive number even for a big corporation but nothing is at random when it comes to this company. Their shared content is focused on video but it is a mix of entertaining and informative content.
Their slogan is reflected in everything they share with their fans, including the amazing pictures posted on their Facebook wall.
If you follow their page you can easily notice that everything is true: Red Bull really give you wings.
Actionable tips you can learn to optimize your Facebook page:
Twitter: There are significantly fewer followers on Twitter than on Facebook but it is understandable, considering that this social platform is not as popular as it was a few years ago. Here, the content is based on a mix of videos and images based on speed, sports, and motion.
Their captions are short but at the same time, captivating.
Instagram: Similarly to their Twitter presence, Red Bull’s Instagram posts are a mix of videos and images. However, behind every image, there is a story to be told and we can always expect something really cool and exciting from Red Bull when it comes to digital content. Also Red Bull is playing the UGC game on their Instagram, giving the audience a much larger perspective about the sport and athletes.
Instagram is not only for posting videos and images, they also ask their community to vote the next photo to publish on their feed using Instagram Stories.
Red Bull asked its followers to vote with a “like” emoji for the next photo. Audience members sent the emoji in direct messages through Instagram Chat for the one that they wanted published. (Too bad I didn’t have the inspiration to screenshot the resulting stories.) source
There are always new places to show, new people and new events.
YouTube: This is the social media channel where Red Bull has something really special to share with their fans. There are more than 6 million subscribers who are enjoying daily video uploads.
The content is diverse so that it will appeal to different audiences.
The important fact is that through their YouTube channel we get to know Red Bull, their core values, what do they stand for and what motivates them but we can also get to know sports personalities and daring people who adhere to the company’s values and messages.
Red Bull gives you wings.
This is a simple message that tells us everything about Red Bull brand. It’s their core message, older than social media and Red Bull Media House. What is important here and what makes it a perfect message is that it is not only in line with everything the company does on and offline but at the same time, it triggers different emotions in people, according to their dreams and aspirations.
Thus, it becomes a universal message that can be adjusted to different demographic groups based on their core values. We all need wings at some point, we all need inspiration, we need to dare and to focus on fulfilling our dreams whether we are into sports, into music, into content creation and so on.
The chosen metaphor can inspire us to imagine whatever we want but at the same time, it gives a straightforward message.
„As a major content provider, it is our goal to communicate and distribute the ‘World of Red Bull’ in all major media segments, from TV to print to new media to our music record label,” says Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian owner of Red Bull.
For the company and its marketing strategy, content is sometimes even more important than the energy drink they produce, sell and market.
What makes them better at it and sometimes even better than other media companies?
Let’s not forget that Red Bull spent over $2 million on a movie called The Art of Flight, a huge investment in content from a company but still, another proof of their commitment to sharing their stories with the world.
Print will be the premium content in a content marketing strategy.
Well, the print is not dead. In fact, for Red Bull, it is alive, more than ever, in 2017. Red Bull’s printed magazine, Red Bulletin has a distribution of more than 5 million copies. „The Red Bulletin features breathtaking stories from the World of Red Bull and its playgrounds” and makes the perfect example of a content delivery platform that lately, seems to be rather ignored by marketers: the print issue of a magazine.
What makes Red Bulletin stand out from the crowd is not only the quality and value of the published content but also the fact that it follows the same stories and ideas that are the core of Red Bull’s marketing strategy.
As a magazine, however, it reaches to an audience that in many ways differs from the audience that consumes social media and video content.
This is the demographic group that values a good reading material.
Everybody values freedom and Red Bull markets exactly this concept through sports and activities. People of today are more mobile than ever but at the same time, younger generations are more inclined to adhere to a healthy lifestyle. Movement and sports are important for a healthy body and mind and Red Bull markets their product by associating it with the values of modern society.
They don’t just sponsor events.
They create and market their own brand building events that are innovative and at the same time, great sources of unique, original content.
Here are some of the best and relevant examples of how Red Bull creates events for people and actually manages to give them what they want:
Red Bull is all about making dreams come true. Whatever these dreams may be. And, when it comes to sports, nothing seems to be impossible for them or even unimaginable.
Why is this thing important?
A brand that manages to inspire people is a brand that will always be associated with freedom, motivation, and action. It’s a brand that creates awareness of itself by through emotions and adventure
What started as a simple slogan for the active people, „Red Bull gives you wings”, has become through the years a straightforward call to action, a reality.
But Red Bull Stratos project had some interesting marketing stats you need to know about
This project reaffirm and positioned Red Bull not only as a brand who is sponsoring events but also as a event creator.
Content is important for a brand or business who is trying to build or maintain reputation and awareness online and offline. We’ve seen that Red Bull have now their own media company and they are constantly investing in events that market their products and brand. However, they are also champions in inspiring people in creating content for their channels and providing it for free.
User-generated content is essential in social media and Red Bull are well aware of this fact. This type of content builds trust among the consumers due to the fact that it is authentic, non-paid and not influenced by marketers, influencers or brands.
How did they manage to attract UGC?
The answer lays in everything we’ve discussed so far. Red Bull created their brand around sports and outdoor activities, around an exciting lifestyle. People always share their adventures on social media channels. Why not do it with and for Red Bull? Besides, Red Bull create their own content, constantly expanding their audience and thus, making it more easy to their fans to select their platforms for content publishing.
A larger audience is attractive not only for the brand but also for those who are sharing their adventures and skills on the brand’s online streaming and social media channels.
User-generated content builds trust with your customers but at the same time, influencer marketing can also help you, especially if you know how to choose your brand ambassadors.
Red Bull has done an incredible job in leveraging this particular marketing strategy by relying on content published by influencer athletes such as free runners, bikers, racers, and divers.
These athletes are sponsored by Red Bull or participating at events sponsored by the company.
Thus, they made sure that when sportsmen share their videos and images from those competitions, the Red Bull brand will be present one way or another.
Red Bull proved to us several times that they are a leading marketing company, not just the producer and distributor of energy drinks. They know how to adapt to changes and how to embrace technology and turn it to their advantage. One thing, however, stands out as the center focus of everything they do: the brand. They build it from scratch and continue to build it with every new campaign.
They started by investing in sports, extreme sports and adventures but the ultimate goal was to build brand awareness that would finally lead to brand loyalty among their fans and customers. Everything they do is brand related through carefully placed products and slogans. You will say that everybody does it. Yes, it is true. However, Red Bull didn’t stop at extreme sports and outdoor activities.
It’s great to convince your target audience to follow your brand but why stop there? Why not aiming for another niche and expand to this new audience as well? We are not all active people and some of us don’t care about sports.
There are also artists who sometimes need more energy and thus, the Red Bull Music Academy was imagined.
RedBullContentPool is also an awesome way to engage with Red Bull’s content. This website is where the brand is providing high quality photos and videos for editorial use, by content creators as publishers, news agencies, TV stations, bloggers and others. The interesting fact is that you won’t see a watermark on the photos, but you will see a native used logo somewhere in the content.
Their are other cool projects that is making Red Bull the ultimate media company, you just have to check their media room page.
The Red Bull brand is one of the leading media companies in today’s context and one of the most reputable brands. That’s because the Red Bull marketing strategy is divided in so many areas.
Although they don’t have a big history, they did it all by the book and when there wasn’t a book available, they created new strategies that can inspire marketers from all around the world.
Everything Red Bull does is based on their brand and content marketing.
What do you think about their strategies? Is there something you might want to add to this list? Have you tried some of these strategies?
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