Red Bull is an energy drink that is sold by an Austrian company named Red Bull GmbH that was created in 1987. Red Bull owns the largest market share of all energy drink companies in the world with over 6 billion cans sold worldwide in 2016 (Dudovskiy 2016). Red Bull offers its standard energy drink along with a host of variations that includes sugar free, total zero, and several limited-edition drinks. Other products include Krating Daeng, Red Bull Cola, and Red Bull energy shots. The products are sold worldwide and are evident in many different cultures. Red Bull keys in on public relations with the use of diversification. Red Bull generates product awareness with its association to sports, lifestyle, and adventure. It isn’t the drink itself, but their commitment to connecting to the masses personally through the emphasis of promoting those three factors that is the driving force behind the public relations strategy of Red Bull. They utilize everything from social media to sporting events to promote their brand and to influence public opinion in their favor.
Red Bull’s brand is based on the relationships that it has with its customers and fans. The textbook states that, “Different types of organizations have different priority publics—the publics that mean the most to them” (Seitel 2015). Red Bull is a multinational company that doesn’t just focus on one demographic, but looks to encompass all its followers under one umbrella together. The use of sports is one way that Red Bull achieves establishing those relationships. Red Bull have made themselves known within the sports industry and their sponsorship deals have spread further wide and across more traditional sports. This has led them to becoming involved in a variety of sports and gives them an unrivaled public relations strategy that has potentially changed how multinational companies sponsor teams (Puzzle Sport 2016). One of its most valuable strategies is its involvement in extreme sports. The creation of high-octane events such as the Red Bull Air Race, Red Box Soap Box Racing, as well as motor-cross events, snowboarding and cliff-diving has allowed Red Bull to gain the support of a very large community. The have also supported the involvement of youths in extreme sports that’s has allowed them to reach an even larger audience. Over the years, Red Bull have been able to connect with young audiences all over the world, emphasizing their brand identity as an enabler of thrilling events, sponsoring and being involved with over 500 extreme sports. Red bull has tailored their content to incorporate sports enthusiasts all over the world and currently has its own media company, the Red Bull Media House (Puzzle House 2016). Included within the media company they have Red Bull TV, where viewers can watch all live events and other types of extreme sporting events direct from the channel. Their media platforms do not stop there either; in 2014 Metro UK partnered with Red Bull to create Red Bulletin. This is a platform that allows Red Bull to produce a monthly publication that is updated regularly and packed with branded content regarding sports, lifestyle and culture. All the Red Bull events and sports they are responsible for have helped Red Bull raise their profile within the sports industry. Each event acts as branded content that can be presented to millions with engaging products.Red Bull effectively utilized the lack of media attention that extreme sports was getting and changed public opinion about the sport while increasing their public image of being associated with it. By taking ownership of individuals and teams involved within extreme sports, endorsing the sports, and indirectly promoting the brand they’ve captured and inspired extreme sports enthusiasts and associated many exciting and engaging sports with the caffeine-filled drink with their public relations strategy. It’s the creation of the public image of the brand that has served as much of success for the brand. Instead of funneling money into advertising campaigns surrounding the drink itself, Red Bull have fueled actual sports and sporting events that have taken the brand to new heights. This has allowed the brand image to resonate with young people all around the world.
With the utilization of its own media group, Red Bull has been able to adapt to and exploit the ever-growing presence of social media in public relations. Many of the relationships that were referenced earlier are built through Red Bull’s reach through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They actively participate in all digital marketing promotional activities and know what type of audience to influence on each social platform. Their social media strategy is not about the drinks, it’s about sports, adventure and lifestyle, because they know people are not interested advertisements, but interesting contents & visual posts attract them and what they love to share & talk about (Soni 2015).
Red Bull’s use of Facebook is a prime example of how the energy drink itself isn’t promoted, but a lifestyle is the focus to connect with its fans. The main Facebook page generally posts one or two updates per day, but you’d be hard pushed to find any that actually include an image of a Red Bull can (Moth 2013). Their Facebook wall posts focus on images and videos of extreme sports and athletes sponsored by Red Bull. It fits with the brands overall strategy of promoting itself as a lifestyle choice rather than a simple, caffeinated drink. Unlike the other brands, Red Bull doesn’t bother to respond to any user comments. To the untrained eye, this seems like a missed opportunity to have conversations with customers, but then Red Bull’s strategy is uniquely different than most consumer brands. The type of content is completely different from what most brands post, so the comments on its wall posts tend to be about admiration for the athletes rather than discussing Red Bull’s products. This means there isn’t perhaps the same need to respond to consumer comments. They allow the consumer base to speak their mind freely about the content without input from Red Bull.
Another social media platform that Red Bull uses as a part of its public relations strategy is Twitter. As an international brand, Red Bull has hundreds of twitter feeds that span almost every continent on the globe. As with its Facebook presence, Red Bull has dedicated feeds for all its different events and projects, including Red Bull Stratos, Racing, Crashed Ice, Studios and Gaming (Moth 2013). Red Bull’s official Twitter account has well over 1 million followers and many of those followers mainly see tweets that consist of links to images and videos of its sponsored athletes. They occasionally post tweets that consist of questions and comments on sponsored events to engage their followers, but again that isn’t the primary goal. They are notably better at responding to their followers on Twitter than on Facebook, but the replies are still relatively small. Considering the amount of buzz that Red Bull generates from Twitter, one would assume that they would do a better job at having open discussions with its followers, but that would go against their strategy. The strategy is to create these exhilarating moments and then sit back and let consumers spread the word on social networks. Red Bull sets the foundation and they let the fans build upon that for exposure. Instagram is considered Red Bull’s number one social media channel by many. Just as with the other referenced platforms, Red Bull capitalizes on the type of media content that can be displayed using Instagram. Red Bull has successfully utilized both content types on Instagram, consistently posting both photos and videos for their followers. They understand that their audience favors extreme sports, and videos captures the essence of those events in a powerful way. About 43% of their posts in this data period were videos and not surprisingly, videos generated almost 40% of the engagement for the brand (Simply Measured 2018). The amount of comments that are left under those video uploads resonates the audience’s engagement with Red Bull content. Their video posts receive over four times more comments than their photo uploads. To maintain that engagement, Red Bull makes sure that everything pops to their audience. They always make sure that the content is very energetic. When a follower views a post. They want them to feel as if they are watching it in real time. They also repost content from different extreme sports photographers to source good content and amplify the brand’s Instagram feed (Simply Measured 2018). Their Instagram captions are very simple and succinct, but at the same time a little edgy, which keeps things interesting. Lastly, they remain committed to selling the lifestyle that encompasses their brand. That lifestyle is not a viewer consuming a drink, but the consumer living and enjoying and adventurous, high-adrenaline, and energetic life.
Even though Red Bull has created a great public relations image of itself, they have also endured their share of crisis. In 2013, Red Bull found itself on the wrong end of an 85-million-dollar lawsuit that involved the consumption of one of its energy drinks (Mitchell 2013). The lawsuit was a wrongful death lawsuit that involved a 33-year-old Brooklyn man that collapsed while playing a game of basketball after consuming a Red Bull energy drink. He died of a heart attack, and the medics who arrived at the scene pointed to his consumption of the energy drink in their report. The man’s family, who brought on the lawsuit, says that he was otherwise healthy and believe the beverage to be the cause of his premature death. A Red Bull spokeswoman declined to comment on the case, but did not hesitate to point out that Red Bull is available in more than 165 countries because health authorities have concluded it is safe to consume. She also added that about 35 billion cans have been consumed since Red Bull was created more than 25 years ago. The public didn’t take to that claim very well because many health authorities are not secure in claiming that energy drinks are safe. To counteract the negative reactions that Red Bull was enduring form this fallout, they took steps that directly dealt with FDA regulations and other self-imposed guidelines to help sway public opinion back it their favor. They dropped their contested “dietary supplement” labels in favor of a simple beverage label. They do not market their products to children under the age of 12 or distribute products to K-12 schools. However, the labeling shift also means that these brands no longer have an obligation to inform the FDA when someone draws a link between the “beverages” and adverse health effects (Mitchell 2013).
Red Bull has also faced criticism for its associations with extreme sports. The criticism stems for the increasing number of deaths from those sponsored by Red Bull who perform the dangerous stunts. It began when 38-year-old pilot and stuntman Guido Gehrmann crashed his small jet and died while performing a Red Bull sponsored stunt. In years prior, three others died while carrying out stunts for Red Bull: skier Shane McConkey, parachuter Eli Thompson and base jumper Ueli Gegenschatz – who was even filmed during the action that killed him (Hoppner 2013). Social media platforms and the press began to question who was actually responsible for the death of these individuals. They also focused on skier’s Shane McConkey tragic death to implement why they felt Red Bull was part of the blame for these deaths. The Canadian athlete had jumped from a 300-meter-high (nearly 1,000-foot-high) cliff in Italy's Dolomites mountain range (Hoppner 2013). The plan was for McConkey, after completing a double backwards flip, to detach his skis and fly in a wingsuit, finally landing to the ground in a parachute. The plan backfired when McConkey spent too much time struggling with his skis and couldn’t use the wingsuit or parachute. That horrible turn of events resulted in his death. It was speculated that he was under tremendous pressure of Red Bull to perform more riskier and more reckless stunts to maintain his sponsorship by Red Bull. Red Bull declined to comment on the story, saying that the spotlight should remain on the athlete and celebrating his amazing contributions to the world of extreme sports. Red Bull received some help from third party journalists. Many wrote that while Red Bull should bear some responsibility, the curiosity of public viewers who want to see these amazing feats done should also shoulder some responsibility also. Red Bulls main economic value is the connection of adventure, extremes, and going beyond the boundaries to accomplish the impossible. The viewers of these extreme sports also embrace that lifestyle which in turns creates a market of Red Bull to capitalize on.
Since Red Bull is at heart a for profit company, public relations strategies must be appealing to keep the public from categorizing them with other non-reputable for-profit companies. When compared with a nonprofit organization such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the similarities and differences can become quite evident. Both campaigns are about featuring a lifestyle for a specific audience. They both encourage their audiences to life freely without the worries of tomorrow. Both organizations rely heavily on celebrity features to push their campaigns to the masses. Just as Red Bull does, the Make-A-Wish Foundation uses sports and respectable athletes to make and sustain lasting relationships with its audience. Both organizations also rely on social media platforms to push their messages also. YouTube is a major social media platform for both companies to produce and make accessible videos of their public works. The differences are also very evident. Red Bull specifically targets and older age group than does Make-A-Wish. The Make-A-Wish Foundation targets terminally ill children who want a specific wish that they have in mind granted. The Make-A-Wish foundation also directly interacts with viewers to shed light on the children who are in need for various reasons. By interacting so personally, the relationships that are built transcend normal viewership. Red Bull doesn’t connect with its followers on the same personal level that Make-A-Wish does. They allow the viewers themselves to express themselves through their content after posting it to various social media platforms. Although similar and different in certain ways, both organizations have effective public relations campaigns.
In conclusion, Red Bull has created and sustained a very effective marketing plan since the drink was first introduced to market. Instead of focusing public relations on the drink itself, they focus their strategy on promoting lifestyle, adventure, and sports. Those three factors with the help of social media has allowed Red Bull to effectively generate positive feedback from its consumer base, even during times that were considered bad PR. Their strategy of letting the viewers promote for them will allow Red Bull to continue to prosper for years to come.