Content Marketing
Content marketing redefined
Beverage major Red Bull wants to recover much of its marketing costs through content sales
RAJIV RAO
New Delhi, 11 April
n October 2012, Red Bull launched Stratos, an audacious event where it sent parachutist Felix Baumgartner up 39 kms into the stratosphere in a balloon so he could jump and break the sound barrier while free falling. Baumgartner became the first human to do so. The stunt, which Red Bull had been planning for seven years, was itself perhaps not so surprising when you consider the company had been sponsoring extreme action sports almost its inception. What was ingenious, however, was what it did with the event. The energy drink maker assumed sole command of chronicling Stratos on film and, according to reports, funneled it through some 80 television outlets in five countries along with a live stream on Youtube that was 16 times greater than the views for the summer Olympics that took place a few months before Stratos.“Red Bull today is an experiential marketer which happens to make beverages, says Anita Karnik, Principal Partner, branded entertainment and activation, Mindshare. Red Bull today is a full-fledged media production company with thousands of hours of footage of extreme sporting events that it owns the copyright to. It also flogs them in bits and pieces off its internet site while giving some off it away for free. “The whole idea for us is to become a media company,” says Rohan Vyavaharkar, national communications manager for Red Bull in India. Industry observers say that the global vision is to ultimately make the company’s content sales equal to that of its energy drinks. That vision has come to India and Red Bull is stepping up its mandate here by bringing action sports to the masses as original event programming while trying to make money off it. Fans of motorsports are probably familiar with their last campaign, associated with Formula One racing. In October 2011, before the championship race at the
Beverage major Red Bull wants to recover much of its marketing costs through content sales
RAJIV RAO
New Delhi, 11 April
n October 2012, Red Bull launched Stratos, an audacious event where it sent parachutist Felix Baumgartner up 39 kms into the stratosphere in a balloon so he could jump and break the sound barrier while free falling. Baumgartner became the first human to do so. The stunt, which Red Bull had been planning for seven years, was itself perhaps not so surprising when you consider the company had been sponsoring extreme action sports almost its inception. What was ingenious, however, was what it did with the event. The energy drink maker assumed sole command of chronicling Stratos on film and, according to reports, funneled it through some 80 television outlets in five countries along with a live stream on Youtube that was 16 times greater than the views for the summer Olympics that took place a few months before Stratos.“Red Bull today is an experiential marketer which happens to make beverages, says Anita Karnik, Principal Partner, branded entertainment and activation, Mindshare. Red Bull today is a full-fledged media production company with thousands of hours of footage of extreme sporting events that it owns the copyright to. It also flogs them in bits and pieces off its internet site while giving some off it away for free. “The whole idea for us is to become a media company,” says Rohan Vyavaharkar, national communications manager for Red Bull in India. Industry observers say that the global vision is to ultimately make the company’s content sales equal to that of its energy drinks. That vision has come to India and Red Bull is stepping up its mandate here by bringing action sports to the masses as original event programming while trying to make money off it. Fans of motorsports are probably familiar with their last campaign, associated with Formula One racing. In October 2011, before the championship race at the