Yesterday, Red Bull executed one of the most amazing social media marketing campaigns… period: Red Bull Stratos.
For those of you who haven’t been following along, Stratos was a world record attempt by daredevil Felix Baumgartner at breaking 4 world records including highest free fall, fastest free fall, longest free fall, and highest manned balloon flight. In the end, he successfully jumped from a capsule carried to the edge of space by a balloon, roughly 128,000 feet (39km) above the earth. When in free fall, he broke the speed of sound travelling at a maximum velocity of 1,136km/hour. Needless to say, this was an incredible feat.
If you would like further information about this amazing project, check out the Red Bull Stratos official website or their official Twitter profile @RedBullStratos for the most up-to-date information.
Another amazing accomplishment of Stratos was its social media and digital marketing program that ran concurrently with the preparation and live coverage of the actual jump. This program will undoubtedly continue for some time that will yield all sorts of amazing content. From the day I saw the first promotional video for Stratos, to yesterday’s amazing live coverage of Felix’s jump, I’ve been blown away by this program from a marketing, advertising and content creation standpoint, and now want to share a few lessons we can learn from this program.
Following are 6 of the key lessons that can be learned from the Red Bull Stratos social media and digital program:
1 – PRE-PROMOTION
WHAT RED BULL DID: Red Bull did an excellent job promoting Stratos with videos documenting the history of the records that Felix was attempting to break, documentation of Felix’s preparation, a website providing information on the technology being used to break these records, and on.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS: Pre-promote, pre-promote, pre-promote. Nobody will know what you are doing, or what you’re all about without promoting it. When you invest in pre-promotions, when your event, product, or service launches, you’ll have a pre-built audience waiting to get involved in your activity, and you’ll have a much better chance of ensuring its success.
2 – ABUNDANT, HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT
WHAT RED BULL DID: If you know anything about Red Bull, you know they make energy drinks, andamazing, awe inspiring content, and Stratos has not disappointed. The pre-promotion and preparation videos have been excellent and captivating. The Stratos Twitter profile has been pumping out compelling updates including Twit Pics and Instagram shots from test flights, various preparations, briefings, and the actual event. And the live stream on YouTube shattered viewership records.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS: Find opportunities to create strategically relevant, high-quality, engaging content in everything that you do. Also, think divergently about who might be interested in different types of content that you can produce. A behind the scenes look at your business operation won’t attract millions of views like a Red Bull video, but it might be interesting to future employees and help to cut your recruitment costs. There are numerous opportunities for content creation for any business, you just need to be creative with identifying content opportunities, and how you will ultimately use that content for your benefit.
3 – PLATFORM SPECIFIC CONTENT
WHAT RED BULL DID: During every phase of preparation leading up to the big jump, Red Bull created content that was specifically designed for each of their social platforms. Tweets were to the point and packed with a re-Tweet worthy stat, statement or quote. Facebook posts were visual in nature, but took advantage of the added real estate for copy to give more in-depth analysis or commentary related to the picture. Blog posts were longer form content that gave in-depth coverage of the event for interested fans.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS: Avoid creating one update for Twitter and simply reposting it to Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social media platforms. Craft your content to be optimized for each of your social media and digital properties and you’ll be rewarded with higher interaction and engagement rates.
4 – INVESTMENT
WHAT RED BULL DID: They had an unbelievable idea, and invested… big time. In a case like this, a monumental investment was necessary because a man’s life was at stake, but they invested heavily in all of the periphery and supporting communications and content creation for Stratos.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS: When you have an incredible idea for content creation, social media or digital marketing, make the most of it and give it the best chance of being a success by investing what’s necessary to make it amazing. I’m not suggesting that you throw your money away – you wouldn’t do that even if I suggested it – but just make sure that your ideas are supported sufficiently enough to realize your vision. Your consumers will reward you for it with views, likes, follows, shares, comments, affinity, and on.
5 – COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
WHAT RED BULL DID: Through preparations for the jump and the live coverage of the jump itself, Red Bull involved their community on an ongoing basis. They answered numerous questions on Twitter, allowed their community to ask Felix questions during the post-jump press conference, and created a consumer promotion to allow fans to guess where Felix would touch down after his jump.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS: Involve your community with your brand to give people a reason to stay interested in what you are doing. This also will work toward building brand affinity and loyalty. Further to this, consumers will have the sense that they are building a relationship with the brand, and people behind it, which is really a primary goal all social media marketers should have.
6 – STORYTELLING
WHAT RED BULL DID: From beginning to end, Red Bull wrapped Stratos in a compelling story of passing the torch from the old veteran to the young adventurer. In this case Joe Kittinger, the former world record holder of all records Stratus aimed to break, served as a primary consultant and supporter to Felix Baumgartner. Through the course of Stratos, Felix and Joe’s relationship was featured as strong support to the actual jump and served as a human-interest story that drew us all in.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS: Tell a compelling story online and through social media that is inherently related to your brand. This will draw people to your brand, have the ability to create an emotional bond that didn’t previously exist, and give them a reason to return for more information, details, or the next chapter.
If you haven’t been following along with Stratos, I urge you to check it out as it was a tremendously executed digital and social media marketing program, and resulted in truly awe-inspiring content.
What did you think about Red Bull Stratos?
Were you following along from the beginning?
What did you think or feel when you saw Felix step out of the capsule and plummet toward Earth?
What Stratos-related content do you hope to see from Red Bull in the coming days and weeks?
It would be great to hear from you in the comments or on Twitter @RGBSocial
Photo Credit: Red Bull’s Facebook Page
Interesting points Matt! Those points emphasized my conclusion: social media optimization. My overall review is Red Bull did fabulous efforts for this project. Five years absolutely has many phase to do, also to convince stakeholders that Red Bull stratos project will bring out unbelieveable outcome. Instead of millions of people streaming, tv audiences, users retweeting, posting and so on, how would you evaluate the impact on this project?
Hi Inge,
Thanks so much for your comment. I think there are a few comments/questions here, so I’ve split my response accordingly:
COMMENT: ‘Those points emphasized my conclusion: social media optimization’
I couldn’t agree more that content on social media needs to be optimized for each platform. It’s critical to craft content specifically for each platform so that each platform’s unique qualities can be fully exploited.
COMMENT: ‘…also to convince stakeholders that Red Bull stratos project will bring out unbelieveable outcome’
Your comment about convincing stakeholders that Stratos would be a worthwhile investment is also a great point. I’m sure we’ve all experienced circumstances where an incredible idea is dead before it sees the light of day because of wariness about a high initial investment. Good on Red Bull for continually taking this calculated ‘risk’ and producing unbelievable content.
QUESTION: ‘… how would you evaluate the impact on this project?’
Regarding the impact this project has had, I think some of the preliminary results speak for themselves:
- The YouTube live-stream shattered records for simultaneous streams (8 million+ simultaneous streams?)
- Entries in their consumer promotion, last I checked a couple of days ago were right around 100,000
- Followers of the Stratos Twitter feed are at 250,000+
- Engagement and interaction rates with Stratos-related content on Facebook are through the roof (though Red Bull doesn’t typically hurt in this area)
- Checking Alexa data, the majority of visitors to redbullstratos.com fall directly in what I would imagine is Red Bull’s target demo, males aged 18-24, so the bulk of their efforts reached a highly relevant target
- Also from Alexa, it looks like the majority of visitors to the site either came from, or went to Red Bull social media properties, continuing their engagement with the brand and Stratos
- And I can’t even hazard a guess at the earned media this has generated through mass media channels, PR, and online… and look at us continuing to contribute to their amazing results
Obviously I’d love to see an illustration of sales data vs. an in-market activity calendar to see how the product performed on-shelf during this period of time. This said, I would imagine the energy drink category is fickle in the sense that consumers are probably easily persuaded to try new brands. The aim of programs like this, further to increasing sales, could also be to perform blocking and tackling to ensure competitors don’t encroach on Red Bull’s share.
Anyway, I hope I answered your questions, and thanks again for the comment.
Matthew.
One one site it’s great idea for building real brand values – extreem adventure, risk, energy, effort, carrage, ambition challenge etc, but on the other hand I have a question about the borders of brand/marketing promotional activities. Isn’t it too much to invent such risky event where people’s life is threatend? Don’t take me wrong – It’s totally amazing what he did it’s just the question if this should subject to be used in brand promotion?
Hi Jacek – Thanks very much for your comment. I absolutely agree with you that Stratos was an amazing idea that was hugely relevant to the Red Bull brand and worked enormously to supporting their brand promise.
To address your question regarding the borders and risks associated with what should be acceptable for branding or marketing promotions, I think that everyone involved in these kinds of stunts needs to make educated decisions for themselves on what their tolerance is going to be for risk. And remember that risk is one thing, and recklessness is another. Whether your program involves someone jumping to Earth from the edge of space, or you’re executing a fairly typical street sampling initiative, there are inherent risks involved that need to be identified, and steps need to be taken to mitigate those risks. Alternatively, brands can always opt out of executing something they’re not comfortable and confident with.
My high-level evaluation of Stratos is that it seemed as though Red Bull, and all those involved, were incredibly diligent in their risk assessment, always having safety at the top of their priority list. Was it safe? Certainly not, but I’m sure that there were enough safety measures in place to ensure – as best they could – that Felix would land safely.
Thanks again for your comment, and I hope I answered your question sufficiently.
Matthew.