Marketing Campaigns

Hey:Guy

“The Power of Being Second”

          This week in business class we learn about  Marketing Campaigns so from a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a product or service to customer  for the purpose of selling that product or service. Red Bull is one of my favorite case studies because everything about the brand’s content, marketing and communication efforts is about its customers and what’s important to them.  The product itself is secondary to the activities that the customer engages in, and cherishes. Red Bull understands that its customers are young and active.They understand that customers in this age range are extremely savvy when it comes to advertising.  So instead of trying to market its product to these customers (which would be a turnoff to them). Red Bull focuses its content on the activities they love.

Red Bull on YouTube

Red Bull takes footage from the event and show it by itself and also works it into its commercials as well.  Red Bull got a lot of publicity from Felix Baumgartner’s ‘freefall from space’.  The brand divided footage from that amazing event into a highlight video and that almost 36 million view now.  Additionally it posted videos from test jumps Baumgartner made, and of course his successful space freefall closes out the broadcast advertising but notice something else; you don’t see the Red Bull energy drink until the final 4 seconds of the commercial.  You don’t see any of these amazing athletes drinking it, or any reference to it at all.  You see the Red Bull logo a few time but the commercial is clearly promoting these amazing athletes and their skills.

So  what makes this marketing so compelling is that Red Bull is telling a story “where the customer is the hero”.  The content is position so that the customer sees these athletes performing these amazing activities yet feels inspired to push themselves to go farther.

The product has become secondary to the activities that Red Bull’s customers enjoy.