Question

Comment you thought on this discussion 100 plus words

DISCUSSION

Red Bull

Red bull has been giving consumers “wings” since 1987. Red Bull is an Austrian company with the highest market share of any energy drink in the world. The company is #76 on the “Forbes Most Powerful Brand List” in 2015 and is continuing to grow. From the beginning, their marketing strategy has centered around brand awareness and word of mouth through viral videos and event marketing. The company’s slogan is a great example; “Red Bull gives you wings”. Instead of going the traditional approach of mass marketing, Red Bull has generated a ‘brand myth’ while pairing it with extreme sporting events such as ‘Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series’ or the ‘Red Bull Air Race’. This pairing really sticks with a consumer and strengthens their awareness while adding an added consumer experience. As well, Red Bulls marketing also includes multiple sports team ownerships, celebrity endorsements and even music. Red Bull is known for their innovative marketing strategies. Recently, they rolled out a simple yet successful social media campaign.

Recent Social Media Campaign

            This year Red Bull decided to come out a new flavor or what they call ‘edition’ for the summer, called Summer Edition, which was a yellow can. They chose to roll out the new flavor with a social media campaign on Instagram. Red Bulls instagram is already known for being a great example of brand marketing and social media presence. The goals for the campaign was to drive awareness of the extension and boosting sales for the new Summer Edition. They started their campaign with a promotional teaser that was released right before the summer hit to get consumers excited and talking about the new flavor. After this, they began to use yellow filters on a many of their images to match the yellow cans. As well, they were posting videos portraying typical summer days. Red Bull would use #thissummer and #redbullsummeredition for all of their campaign posts to increase the likeliness their image would pop up. By doing this, the company was twice as likely to be associated with any summer hashtags.

Results ,Takeaway’s, and Changes

The results were the following:

-10-point lift in top-of –mind awareness

-9-point lift in favorability

-7-point drop in the unconvinced market

-1.2 million consumers reached

These numbers show the social media campaign was pretty successful. There was an increase in awareness and favorability while reaching a massive amount of consumers. Social media campaigns are very powerful in influencing and increasing awareness. Instagram campaigns can drive engaged consumers if done correctly. Red Bull did a really good job with understanding how consumers use social media so their campaign would be easily seen.

However, there is one problem that sticks out. This being the fact that Red Bull assumed that the viewers of this campaign already know and love Red Bull. While I personally believe Red Bull’s brand awareness is strong enough with the demographic that is on Instagram, it is important for brands to understand there will always we a group of people who are not aware of a company’s brand. Especially when a company is introducing a new product, it is important to teach them about it rather then throwing it out and looking for views. However, this campaign turned out successful and added to their already impressive marketing portfolio.

Going Viral

            Red Bull is a pro when it comes to making viral content. One of there most famous and impressive was the Red Bull Stratos, in which they worked with Felix Baumgartner to send him more than 128,000 feet into the sky and had him free-fall down to earth. The stunt was preformed in 2012 and made Felix a world record holder. The video easily became viral and strengthened the brand awareness and had much of the U.S. talking about the stunt. Red Bull knows the importance of getting in and staying upfront in the spotlight of viral videos. They consistently pull off stunts like the free fall so excitement and word of mouth about the company stays fresh. Red Bull even made a short film about social media content, including a part about going viral.

           

            Red Bull is an amazing example of multiple types of marketing, including making viral videos, events and having a strong social media presence. The Summer Edition social media campaign was just another example of this. Even though there was room to grow within the campaign, they still did a successful job at strengthening awareness and excitement on the new product.

Answer 1

The case talks about Red Bull and its tremendous success in the marketing and promotion functions. Red bull has always been associated with lot of viral and high adrenaline stunts which has always retained in the minds of the customer. The stunt with Felix Baumgartner is the perfect example of this where Red Bull partnered and provided all the branding for the jump while advertising their product as well. The case also talks about the successful campaign they did on Instagram during the launch of the new flavor ‘edition’. The case gives stats that show the impact of the campaign and that shows the effective and brilliant work that the team is doing at Red Bull. The teams at Red bull are constantly working towards ensuring the products are promoted well and they are positioned in such a way that the customers recall the products faster.