Red Bull’s involvement with extreme content marketing has made it the go to site for all things extreme sports and some amazing physical feats. while the company prefers not to talk about its content marketing strategies, James O’Brien spent time trying to pull back the covers on Red Bull’s content marketing. (Image credit: Flickr)
The extreme content marketing is really fueled by Red Bull Media House which produces some of the top sports videos and amazing extreme sports coverage available anywhere. What is interesting is that on the website there is no talk of the energy drink the company produces.
Check out some of the extreme sport action footage taken in the videos below.
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Content is very much the engine at Red Bull and is intentionally intertwined and crafted with the branding of the energy drink (that the company produces) kept in mind.
“There is brand synergy in our ideology about content,” says Marshall Nord, senior vice president of programming at Halogen. He drew a parallel between Halogen’s tagline, “Be the Change,” describing its “inspiring and empowering programming that entertains and motivates,” and Red Bull’s slogan, “We give wings to people and ideas.”
The two companies’ user demographics are also linked. “Halogen Programming desired to partner with a proven brand that would provide programming directed at young males, as well reach consumers aligned with our brand via other media,” Nord says.
In Red Bull, he says, Hologen has found “a lifestyle brand with the number-one energy drink and a media company that cuts across demographics and psychographics, that produces and distributes content.”
Indeed, Red Bull is working in multiple media. It recently released a feature film, The Art of Flight. The movie cost a reported $2 million to make, but when it hit iTunes in 2011, it parked atop the charts for more than a week — bringing in $10 per download.
The company also publishes a print magazine — The Red Bulletin — with a distribution of about 5 million.
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Rebecca Lieb an analyst with the Altimter Group provides a perspective on the place that extreme content marketing has at Red Bull.
“Look, Red Bull has introduced its content marketing around and about the product, but it is never directly correlated to the drink itself,” Lieb says. “Nobody is going to go to a website and spend 45 minutes looking at video about a drink. But Red Bull has aligned its brand unequivocally and consistently with extreme sports and action. They are number-one at creating content so engaging that consumers will spend hours with it, or at least significant minutes.”
Another question is whether Red Bull is succeeding on all fronts. Is its brand strategy adequately promoting both a drink and a collection of cool footage?
“One measure of success is,” Lieb says, “are they selling more Red Bull this year than last year? Another might be brand awareness. Another might be purchase intent.
“I think Red Bull’s brand awareness accomplishment is through the roof,” she continues. “Ten years ago, nobody knew what Red Bull was. Now, maybe they’re not up there with McDonald’s or Coke, but you could say they’re on a par with Starbucks.”
While your business may not share the extreme sport demographics as its audience what extreme content marketing undertaking have you come across that works well. Have extreme content marketing limits been pushed? If so tell us about it in the comments below.
