Red Bull's Genius Marketing Ploy

How do you make something that has already proven to be a raving success in years past even more successful? Ask Red Bull and they will probably tell you, "do the same thing you did, again."

With previous Flugtag years proving immensely successful, the advertising part of the campaign almost takes care of itself. However, to make everything come together Red Bull had to know what audience to target. They boast an extreme drink for people who choose to live extreme lifestyles (thence the Red Bull extreme sports teams, who defy the laws of physics each and every day with a smile and a big ol' can of red bull in their hand).

But even if you don't live an extreme lifestyle, Red Bull may be the right energy drink for you as well. They do various psychographic analyses to figure out what exactly it is that people are into fro year to year, and tweak their campaigns accordingly. With their main demographic (adults 18-30) moving to the internet as an outlet for news and entertainment, Red Bull changed up their Flugtag campaign to utilize live streams and webcasts so people can enjoy all that Flugtag has to offer even if they aren't able to attend.

Further, Red Bull tends to focus on opportunity research more than problem research. Red Bull hasn't encountered many legal issues in years past, with the exception being several legal suits in the late 90's regarding health scares due to mixing Red Bull with excessive amounts of alcohol (which Red Bull doesn't condone, claiming that its "mixability" is purely coincidental). Even still, they tend to focus on the same opportunity each year - increase their market share and continue to DOMINATE the competition. To do so, Red Bull has released larger and larger cans of their product in the past two years, including their unrivaled 19.2oz can (the standard energy drink sits at 16oz, 24 for some I suppose).

After conducting such research, Red Bull begins its annual Flugtag tour. This tour targets 4 cities per year, hosting mammoth events with beer, food, attractive females and thousands upon thousands of free cans of Red Bull. It costs nothing to attend, and brings in tremendous crowds. While contacting a marketing professional from Red Bull seems nearly impossible (They do their own marketing and PR, and display no contact information besides the general information email form), the results are hard to ignore.