The Effectiveness of Red Bull's Campaign Via Social Media Resources

The first question I am going to answer sounds like “What social and mobile media tools is Red Bull using?” Red Bull’s social media presence is ubiquitous. The brand is active on multiple social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and YouTube. In the world of social media, Red Bull has become a powerhouse with 43 million likes on its Facebook page. Its Instagram account commands over 12 million followers, Google+ boasts 5 million, and its Twitter account, with the punchline hashtag #GivesYouWings, has a following of over 2 million people. Red Bull’s YouTube account has over 9 million subscribers, featuring hundreds of video contents and multiple channels such as Red Bull Dance, Red Bull Surfing, Red Bull Snow, Red Bull Skateboarding, etc.

The Impact of Red Bull's Social Media Marketing Campaign

Red Bull’s mobile app, Red Bull TV, is a global multi-platform app designed for smartphones and tablets and distributed free globally. It allows users to access Red Bull’s wealth of music, sports, and event entertainment content and serves as a marketing tool to advertise its products and promotions of special events to customers. Interestingly, Red Bull maintains an active presence on multiple social media sites while striving to keep the content unique on each platform. Red Bull’s posts on Instagram seem to be more engaging than those on any other media channel.

Social Media Marketing Strategy Used by Red Bull

The second question relates to the social media marketing strategy that Red Bull uses. There are a few points in their strategy:

• Excite the customer - Red Bull’s strategy to engage its audience is by associating itself with extreme sports on its social media sites. It sponsors and promotes daredevil and high-adrenaline record-breaking events, such as Felix Baumgartner’s BASE jump from the Petronas Towers in 1998, followed by his space jump in the much-publicized Red Bull Stratos project on October 14, 2012.
• Educate the customer - Red Bull educates its customers about its products by sharing information through videos and tweets and by pushing alerts on its mobile app about in-store promotions and upcoming sporting events that Red Bull sponsors.
• Experience the product or service - Red Bull helps its audience experience the thrill involved in attending the events it sponsors by posting video clips of its past events that went viral, along with links for fans to purchase tickets for a full season, half-season, or individual games.
• Engage the customer - A good example of how Red Bull engages the customer on social media is when Red Bull posted the picture of New York Red Bull MLS team Thierry Henry’s celebratory pose after scoring a goal, which went viral and encouraged fans to vote for it as their favorite shot of the season.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Red Bull's Campaigns

The last question I am going to consider is “How should Red Bull assess the effectiveness of its campaigns?” Red Bull uses several social networking platforms to promote a lifestyle, creating a cult-like following and a unique brand image. The simplest way to assess the effectiveness of its online campaigns is to look at the number of views or likes of a video post or tweet to measure awareness or how far the message of the campaign has spread. Additionally, examining the number of reposts, retweets, or comments can measure the level of engagement achieved by the campaign. For a more in-depth analysis, several social media analytics software tools, such as Keyhole or BrandWatch, are available to help understand customer attraction, demographics, brand monitoring, business intelligence, and competitor analysis.

So, Red Bull could use the insights from these assessments to understand whether the customer base is growing in size, remaining stagnant, or even shrinking. Knowing what the customers are looking for could give Red Bull a sense of direction to focus its energy and efforts on improving brand value, entering new markets, and maximizing profits. For example, if there is a growing interest in a particular sport, such as how soccer is becoming common in the US, Red Bull could sponsor more events related to that sport to gain a marketing advantage or create its own sport brand, such as Red Bull Air Race. Considering the fact that the primary product of the company is an energy drink, with sales of over 6.5 billion cans in 2018, Red Bull could use information gained from social media to gauge how the food industry is trending to understand whether that might necessitate any change in the formula of the drink to stay relevant in the market.

References

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