Not surprisingly, given his marketing background, Mateschitz spent a lot of time before he launched working on his branding and packaging, working with an old friend called Johannes Kastner, the man who would come up with the famous “Gives you wings” slogan prior to the launch. A nice slideshow from Kastner’s advertising firm sets out the very deliberate personality of the brand, which he describes as “innovative, self-ironic, intelligent, nonconformist, self-confidence, witty, charming, polarising, unpredictable” – in other words, a brand that young people could identify with.
Creating the brand is one thing. Getting it out there is another and it’s a task that the Red Bull empire takes very seriously. The company admits to spending 30-40% of its revenue on marketing, which equates to a spend of somewhere around $1.5 billion a year. As Kastner’s presentation shows, there are four distinct areas of spending:
A few of these areas deserve special attention, as they really underline why Red Bull has been able to create a marketing edge.
While many brands create content as part of their marketing efforts, Mateschitz takes a very different approach to this, using his sponsorship dollars to actually put his brand right in the middle of the action. The stunt with Felix Baumgartner and the company’s endorsements with a range of athletes are an example, but Red Bull has gone to another level by actually buying or creating entire sporting teams, including two Formula One race teams, four soccer teams and a hockey team.
Naturally, these organisations are run as a business with the aim of turning a profit, but there are different ways to measure return. “In literal financial terms, our sports teams are not yet profitable, but in value terms, they are,” Mateschitz told Businessweek. “The total editorial media value plus the media assets created around the teams are superior to pure advertising expenditures.”
Creating content on the world’s sporting fields and tracks is one thing – owning a media group to showcase that content is another. Red Bull Media House was created by Mateschitz to produce and distribute content across print (it has created magazines for US newspapers including the LA Times), television (it has funded programs shown on sports network ESPN), film (including a snowboarding film called The Art of Flight) and online platforms. “Its first and primarily goal is to produce and distribute high quality and unique content for our own channels as well as for our partners. What one also has to take into account is that we create editorial media value for our brand, which offsets investments. In the long term, we expect Red Bull Media House to be profitable,” Mateschitz told GoCreate in February.
It’s not the safest way to make your product a success, but getting Red Bull banned in countries including France and Denmark hasn’t exactly hurt Mateschitz. Safety concerns about the drink and rumours about its ingredients have followed Red Bull around the world, but Mateschitz hasn’t exactly moved to quash these – indeed, rumours that one ingredient came from the semen of bulls were even explored on the company’s website. “In the beginning, the high school teachers who were against the product were at least as important as the students who were for it,” Mateschitz told Businessweek last year. “Newspapers asked, ‘Is it a drug? Is it harmless? Is it dangerous?’ That ambivalence is so important. The most dangerous thing for a branded product is low interest.”
It’s the essence of Red Bull – push the boundaries and push some buttons, but just make sure you get noticed.
James Thomson is a former editor of BRW’s Rich 200 and the publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
