Sports marketing has always been an integral part of a companies philosophies. It gives companies a unique chance to put a face behind their brand for the world to see. The attractive stat about sports advertisement is the fact that 97% of America’s largest sports channel, ESPN, is watched live. It is easy for television viewers to record different shows and watch them at their convenience while skipping through all of the commercials, but when it comes to a sporting event, the luxury of PVR quietly fades away as watching a sporting event after you know the result simply just does not measure up.
You could go the traditional route and be another person to sponsor a Lebron James or Alex Rodriguez, essentially giving them another madlibs book to fill out (I enjoy {Company name} more than any other company, and you should all like {company name} with me). Although this route has worked for a number of companies, I believe that these days companies need to do something differently to separate themselves, and this is exactly what everybody’s favorite energy drink company has done. That company of course, is Red Bull, who have redefined sports marketing and given it a refreshing change that consumers can get behind.
For the most part, Red Bull has skipped this traditional route of sports marketing, in favour of bringing audiences things that they have never seen. This route is refreshing and ultimately creates a buzz amongst consumers, something that is tough to do with Tiger Woods speaking from a teleprompter about your company or product. By sponsoring individuals that are not as well known, Red Bull not only find a cheaper alternative, but at the same time, gives consumers a figure that they can relate to more and also become intrigued about their story.
These events include such things as building professional snowboarder Sean White his own personal half pipe in the Colorado mountains, having Travis Pastrama jump 269 feet in a rally car to break the world record, or most recently, giving Felix Baumgartner the opportunity to break the 65 year old record when he jumped 26km in altitude out of a hot air balloon.
These video’s has been plastered across the internet and have been viewed by millions of people around the world. In all three cases, the Red Bull brand is clearly visible for all to see, however, it is so unique because it does not seem forced or farfetched as some advertisements with sports stars can be. Take for example this commercial for Eastern Motors featuring Alexander Ovechkin. Maybe it’s just me, but measuring this commercial, which seems forced, against any of the Red Bull ones above, where the product is so effortlessly integrated into the video, there is just no competition.
Although I’m sure it was very costly to create and pull off, the Sky Dive video from yesterday has pulled in over 1 Million views in less than 12 hours of being put on YouTube. Sure, there’s a risk that any of these stunts could go horribly wrong and Red Bull would probably tarnish its brand greatly, but when executed as planned, these provide many more benefits than they could get out of sponsoring an athlete to plug the product occasionally every now and then. A quick twitter poll performed yesterday found that of approximately 400 voters, 25% said that watching that free fall made them wanted to drink a Red Bull. All things considered, 1 in 4 is a pretty impressive number.
Red Bull’s style of marketing is certainly not for every company, and there is still large value in going the traditional route of sports marketing. However, the success that has resulted in these marketing schemes by Red Bull is definitely something that other companies should be examining if they want to break away from the pack and distinguish themselves. Though definitely a risky move, I believe that Red Bull has been extremely pleased with what they have accomplished in the marketing world, with many of their videos going viral across the web, and I would like to see other companies take the same types of risks in the future as advertising continues to evolve.