Ideas We Love: Redbull 💸🥫

Issue no.19: A love letter to the brand that 'gives you wings'

Hi there. How are you? It’s mid-May. How did that happen?

As well as being quite frightening, it also means that we’re not far away from Cannes and the Festival of Creativity. We’re giving some thought to what we might do from a newsletter perspective, given the spotlight that will hopefully be placed on some brilliant communications thinking from the year just gone.

This week we had our heads turned by a video of two men jumping out of a helicopter and flying at high speed through Tower Bridge. An extraordinary stunt and some extraordinary footage to go alongside it. The daredevils were sponsored by Red Bull.

So whilst the temptation was to focus on this particular piece of content, actually we thought it might be better to write a brief love letter to Red Bull itself. This stunt is just the latest in a long, long, long line of similarly bold and dramatic examples of the brand bringing it’s 'high energy’ proposition to life.

Red Bull was born in 1984 when an Austrian business man imported an established Thai energy drink recipe into Europe. The brand expanded through the region during the 90’s and launched in the US in 1997, quickly achieving huge gains in market share. Smaller volume cans, selling at a higher pricepoint alongside some incredibly bold and creative communications, the brand has an incredible track record of deploying some brilliant ideas in it’s marketing approach.

Why we love Red Bull

#1 The power of positioning

In IWL#14 we talked about the problematic nature of purpose. Perhaps one of the issues with it’s widespread adoption is that ‘purpose’ and ‘positioning’ have become conflated within the lexicon of marketing.

Since 1992, it’s used the tagline ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. It has consistently positioned itself around a wide range of extreme sports. In what was quite a novel move at the time, it sought to attach itself to an ‘energised lifestyle’, not just a specific consumer needstate. This energy characterises the idea at the heart of Red Bull’s identity, and whilst they have found new ways to express and articulate this - they have doggedly executed against this positioning with incredible consistency and commitment. The value of this consistency is that Red Bull is not only readily thought of in the right circumstances, but has a lens through which it can focus it’s thinking and execution.

#2 Media Owner Mentality

Red Bull might be one of the best examples of a brand that understands that everything communicates. And whilst they might notionally sell cans of energy drink, the business (at least to external party) looks a lot like a media company. From their early pioneering foray into building a Youtube channel, to their commitment to the Red Bulletin, to the way they integrate their logo and colour scheme into the uniforms of the teams and athletes that they have sponsored, to the events that they create Red Bull understands that the battleground for their consumer’s hearts and minds is not best fought ‘in the aisle’ but out there - in culture. They produce content which is magnetic and generates attention in and of it’s right…. stuff people want to watch and want spend time with: stuff that is unashamedly entertaining.

#3 Logical & Lateral

Red Bull manage to balance both logical and lateral articulations of their positioning to great effect. From the very ‘logical’ involvements with the most extreme sports to the way that things like Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA), Flugtag and Soap Box Derby present a more ‘lateral’ expression, they balance both sides incredibly well, presenting a rich and and as we have talked about in the past, there is more than one way to think about brand integration.

This balance applies not only to the events they are involved in, but also their approach to talent too. They use athletes as the ultimate influencer and recruit from talent pools within their core sports (F1, Skiing etc) but also from sports where new growth opportunities might exist (e.g Cricket)

#4 Excellence in Execution

Long-time reader and first time caller David got in touch last week after reading the Air Bnb case study. Not only were the ‘icons’ lovely ideas but more importantly he said, they actually went to the significant trouble of executing them.

At a certain point, ideas are cheap. Having the ability to translate ideas into enviable execution, especially when those ideas are obscenely ambitious or complicated or fraught with risk (either legal or human) is such an admirable trait for a brand or business to possess. And in a media and marketing landscape which is characterised by ‘low attention’ and high fragmentation, as well as nascent technologies like Generative AI, having the courage and skill to actually make audacious stuff happen in the real world is a route to success.

Red Bull’s Greatest Hits

When asked what his favourite Beatles album was, Alan Partridge replied “I’d have to say…..The Best of The Beatles”. We feel very similarly about Red Bull. Their back catalogue is incredible it’s hard to choose one thing we like above the other. So, here is our very own ‘Best of Red Bull’ compilation.

#1 Red Bull Stratos

Man jumps out of balloon in low orbit. In a time when the word ‘awesome’ is over used… this was genuinely awe-inspiring.

#2 RedBull Racing

What better articulation of an extreme sports proposition than becoming involved in F1, the most extreme form of motorsport. Not only is Red Bull Racing a brilliant media idea (getting native access to F1 broadcasts, sports pages etc etc) but it can be stretched and stretched into new spaces. This example was covered in IWL#10

#3 Soapbox Derby

A great example of a ‘lateral’ articulation of the brands proposition. People race makeshift cars through a makeshift circuit…. whacky races, indeed.

#4 Flugtag

As above. But with actual wings. Contestants seek to build flying machines and cover the greatest distances they can muster. A lateral companion to the literal Air-race.

#5 Red Bull Music Academy

An annual series of lectures, events and exhibitions focussed on Electronic Music. This interview with Kenny Dixon Jr - aka Moodymann - is still something we think about regularly. It’s bizarre as his insight is brilliant. Red Bull is a brand built not only on extremes, but on expertise too.

#6 World of Redbull

Do Stuff. Tell People. Advertising is great at providing a route into documenting the things you do and taking it to a broader set of people. People who might consume your product but not be into something like skydiving, for example. FMCG marketing typically revolves around claims - softest, smoothest, cleanest, creamiest - this long running set of ads focusses instead of showing, not telling, how it’s brand enables an energised lifestyle.

#7 The World’s Longest Ever Ski Jump

Does exactly what it says on the tin. We love how things like the drone race referenced above start to inform the way content is around other ideas.

#8 Wings for Life World Run

A race without a finish line. A race in support of suffers of spinal injuries. Perhaps the least overtly branded piece of activity that Red Bull are involved in, but we kind of like how brands doing good can happen in the background and not be cynically co-opted as an opportunity to sell more stuff.

Last but not least…. #9 Red Bull ‘Street’ Teams

A strange memory from our more sociable days at University. A classic example of media owner thinking and a hard-working counterpoint to some of the other examples of marketing we’ve shown above. We also love this related story from Richard Shotton: when trying to gain distribution, Red Bull would leave hundreds of emptied cans outside nightclubs, creating the illusion of popularity with clubbers and helping to drive a surge in consumption.

Until Next Time

We’re in the process of compiling a database of our case studies, along with a nifty search layer and links to interesting work - so please let us know if you think we should have highlighted another of Red Bull’s executions here. Also, if you’d like to beta-test this resource with us, please let us know.

There is so much interesting work out there at the moment, that we’re not short of ideas for future issues. But if something in particular has caught your eye, we’d love to know about it!

Until next time.

Cheerio.

Tom and Matt.