Red Bull & the Secret Half Pipe
Last night I was watching the Winter Olympics coverage and was reminded of the brilliant job Red Bull does in building its brand in a modern way across many different communities. To promote the Men’s half pipe competition which airs tonight (7:30pm CT,) NBC showed a segment on Shaun White and his “secret” halfpipe.
For those of you who haven’t heard of this, Red Bull custom built a half pipe for White at a secret location in the middle of nowhere. They fly him out to the location via helicopter whenever he wants to practice. This allows him to invent new tricks away from the prying eyes of the press and his competitors. Both the pristine condition of the halfpipe and its secret location have allowed White to pioneer new tricks that he will debut tonight for the first time in Olympic competition.
To me, this is a brilliant embodiment of the Red Bull brand. Instead of just sponsoring an athlete they have brought their idea of “gives you wings” to life by giving White a distinct competitive advantage in the Olympics.
In another example of enabling its sponsored athletes to go above and beyond, Red Bull gathers all their athletes every year and has them pitch different stunts they want to do. This year Travis Pastrana “flew” a car on New Years and broke the Guiness World Record for the longest car jump.
However, you don’t have to be a famous athlete to participate in one of these experiences. Red Bull street teams create micro events for influencers across different communities around the world. Here in the arctic tundra of Minneapolis, they held a mountain biking race for around 20 riders in the skyway during the winter. They theory here is that if they can create an amazing experience for a small number of people in a community, those people will spread the word.
And they do spread the word. According to howsociable.com Red Bull has a visbility score of 2973. Pepsi has a score of 2240. Gatorade scores 919.
It’s not just extreme sports communities that Red Bull is engaging either. They are all over motorsports, the music scene, clubs and bars, events for computer programmers, the video gaming community, and the craft and DIY world.
They’ve done a great job of building a brand where no matter if “doing more” to you means staying out later at the bar, pulling an all-niter coding, or spending an extra hour on the mountain, Red Bull is your drink of choice.
More brands should follow Red Bull’s example of how to create converstation and energy around your brand in so many different communities.