I’ve never liked the taste of Red Bull, and many people don’t. Nevertheless since I’ve known about the brand, I’ve enjoyed their guerilla marketing and “über” sponsorships. After a stint in the action sports industry a few years ago, I’ve become more than a brand supporter; I’m a Red Bull loyalist. The brand’s iconic success is evidenced by its many holdings, from soccer teams and athlete sponsorships to aircraft racing. In the process, Red Bull has become a well-rounded brand that has built its founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, a small empire.
 
There are many comparisons you can draw between the Red Bull brand and Richard Branson’s Virgin brand, starting with the founders. They both enjoy extreme sports, don’t work a full week, and own brand empires. In fact, Branson and Mateschitz are ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, on Forbes list of worst dressed billionaires.
 
 While you can draw more than a few parallels between the founders of Red Bull and Virgin, there are also key differences. The major difference between the two billionaires lies in their history. Branson began as an entrepreneur, at age 20 selling records out of the back of his car, and opening his first Virgin record store at the ripe age of 22. Unlike Branson, Mateschitz was a closet entrepreneur. He was a marketing manager for P&G on the Blendax brand of toothpaste in Germany. It wasn’t until he was 40 that he founded Red Bull. He was on a business trip to Thailand and discovered the drink Krating Daeng, loosely translated “red water buffalo,” which cured his jetlag, and gave him the idea to create something similar in his Austrian homeland. The brand however would not have been created without the help of one of Mateschitz’s agency colleagues, who offered to front some of the startup capital if Mateschitz gave the advertising contract to the agency.

 
Rather than focusing on traditional advertising techniques like TV and print, Red Bull used events, quirky stunts, and unconventional publicity to build itself up, then still a novel idea. In similar fashion, a recent trend of ad agency folk advocating product development rather than the usual brand development is taking hold. On the topic of creating products, Robbie Vitrano, the principal at Trumpet, a New Orleans-based ad shop comments, “The purest form of marketing is in product development.” And with agencies like Anomaly and BBH, creating products ranging from pizza to women’s skin-care creme, it’s signaling a change of direction for some agencies. The surprise is that they’re not spending a penny on advertising their “babies”. As Carl Johnson from Anomaly mentions, “you can do so much if you know what you’re doing with product placement, sponsorship, digital PR. It’s that whole “I haven’t got any money, so I’ll have to think.” Red Bull is the poster child for this marketing strategy and Mateschitz acknowledges it, “we probably did an excellent marketing job…but the key is the product itself.” Marketers realize that the product will always be at the core and they know how to build a brand around it, and do so on a daily basis. The enormous thought potential found in agencies and marketing departments make them perfect product fabrication shops. Who knows, with a few ideas and some follow through, the next Red Bull could come from BBDO or DDB.
 
What sets Red Bull apart from it’s competition, Coca-Cola’s Rockstar or Pepsi’s SoBe, is not it’s sales, although they account for 65% of the energy drink business, but what the brand represents. Similar to Virgin, Red Bull is selling a culture - youth, action and originality. Just as brand enthusiasts see Virgin as a lifestyle, Red Bull is perceived as such in the action/extreme sports community. A testament to the culture they have created is their brand magazine, Red Bulletin. The magazine is a glossy 100-page piece of literature, delving into sports, music, fashion, travel, food and general enjoyment. It serves to better broadcast their adventurous image and show the passion that exists for a brand that takes athletes to the ends of the earth and provides them with the fuel and gusto to perform hair-raising stunts.
 
I see Red Bull’s “wings” taking them far in the future. As the action sports, motorsports, and extreme sports markets continue to grow - so will Red Bull. And I believe Mateschitz agrees, “Coca-Cola has had 100 years of history. We have 100 years of the future.” In the meantime, Branson has sold Virgin records, and now Mateschitz is selling records under the Red Bull label, go figure.