Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media 1

Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media

Caleb Saylors

Department of Business Administration, Averett University

BSA310: Principles of Marketing

Mr. Benjamin Potter

January 27, 2021

Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media 2

Abstract

Red Bull is an Austrian based company started in 1987 by Dietrich Mateschitz that sells

one product, an energy drink that is sold in a slim, silver-colored 8.3 ounce can. The company

has been an enormous hit with the target youth segment around the globe. Since the year 2001,

Red Bull has managed to maintain its hip, cool image, with virtually no mass market advertising.

The company uses organized extreme sports events like cliff diving in Hawaii and skateboarding

in San Francisco to reinforce the brand’s extreme image. Though these past number of years they

have gone by the “gives you wings” slogan, their recent social media strategies have had an

amazing approach and success in reaching the youth market to become a massive brand and

competitor.

Keywords: digital, networking, social media, campaigns, strategy

Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media 3

Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media

The main conclusion for this paper is that Red Bull is adapting and adopting distinct, appealing

methods that are specific and unique to each social media outlet to get more brand exposure. The

main reasons for this conclusion are:

● Combing the uses of digital and social media

● Leveraging Contacts

● Extreme Sports Events

Red Bull Social Media Tools

Red Bull has used many mobile and social media tools such as social networking sites,

media sharing sites, and thought-sharing sites to gain mass popularity. Social Networking sites

are a great way for marketers to get their brand out into the world and into the eyes of potential

buyers (Levy, 2007, p. 81). For example, Red Bull uses media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter,

and Instagram to get everyone excited and keep them informed about upcoming events. Media

sharing sites are great ways for companies to highlight how buyers and potential consumers can

experience their product, it also encourages customers to engage with Red Bull and other

consumers such as Youtube in order to receive a full experience (Levy, 2007, p. 83-84). This

would allow consumers and buyers to experience different events Red Bull may host or be

associated with. Thought-sharing sites are educating, engaging, and enhancing the user

experience, this is evident because Red Bull has a website for different events while also having

their own company website and app (Levy, 2007, p. 90). This is how Red Bull is selling

themselves to the public and it is working better than they ever could have imagined. The
Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media 4

success of the company is not only due to the company itself, but thanks to other strong social

media outlets and a genius marketing plan.

The 4E Framework

The 4E framework for social media helps excite the customers with relevant offers,

educate them about the offering, help them experience products the company has made, and give

them the opportunity to engage with the different social networks and teams Red Bull has to

offer (Levy, 2007, p. 94-95). Red Bull excites the audience by creating record breaking events,

promoting these events, and live streaming the different events fans want to watch. Red Bull also

educates the audience by allowing them to have videos, photos, and live streams available all

over the internet to enjoy in their free time. This really helped the Red Bull brand by showing

how different they are to other competitors. The experience one has while attending an event or

watching a live stream is enhanced by constant updates on Red Bull’s social media platforms no

matter where they are in the world. The engagement of Red Bull events are further enhanced by

the promotions of social media sites, streaming the events lives, and allowing viewers the chance

to like, share, or comment on the photos or videos being shared. The 4E framework is very

effective for a company such as Red Bull, it gives them the opportunity to show off their

constantly changing and improving business.

Assessing Effectiveness

The first step Red Bull should take when assessing their campaigns is to read comments,

blogs, and social media reviews. This would be a good way of listening to their consumers and

improving the business overall and get ideas of how to improve (Levy, 2007, p. 99). They should

analyze the data gained in the first step of the process and look at how much traffic they are

receiving on their website, Youtube, Twitter, and other forms of social media. Next, they should
Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media 5

see how much time people have spent on these sites and what were the most demanded or least

demanded products, streams, and items. They should also search for keywords people have used

to find their sites and products, this would help them better analyze what people are digging in

and searching for. The last step is do, and this process is one where the company fulfills and

implements what they have been analyzing to improve for future campaigns, products, and to

become an overall better company.

Conclusion

Red Bull is a very successful company due to the fact that they have a brilliant marketing

strategy. The company successfully uses its social media outlets such as Youtube, Twitter,

Facebook, and many others to perfection which in turn brings mass popularity. The Red Bull

brand brilliantly shows how and why they are different compared to other competitors. From

videos, photos, and live streams to the Red Bull Stratos Project which broke live stream viewing

records, the company assesses the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and continues to

gradually get better and make a difference in the energy drink industry, consumers, and extreme

sports lovers' lives every day. The company needs to continue to listen to their consumers and

keep improving the business overall and get ideas of how to go above and beyond. Overall Red

Bull has a very effective marketing campaign, and has the tools to go above and beyond thanks

to their social media outlets that they use very well.

Online Digital Marketing: Red Bull & Social Media 6

References

Grewal, D., & Levy, M. (2007). Chapter 3 : Digital Marketing : Online, Social, And

Mobile. In ​Marketing​ (pp. 78-111). Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Education.

Hallam, T. (2020, April 23). Spotlight: How Red Bull puts brand at the heart of its digital

strategy. Retrieved January 27, 2021, from

https://www.hallaminternet.com/spotlight-how-red-bull-puts-brand-at-the-heart-of-i

ts-digital-strategy/