Mecenat; patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. Those companies usually support artist or sports team. Here is one famous company in the world, which supports various kinds of extreme sports activities and other art performance, ‘Red Bull’. Red Bull is an energy drink sold by Austrian company Red Bull GmbH, created in 1987. The company has been doing Integrated Marketing Communication very successfully.
Red Bull’s slogan is “it gives you wings.” Red Bull’s international marketing campaign targets young men mostly with extreme sports. When you see this commercial, you may know how many kinds of extreme sports that the company sponsors to. These range from mountain biking, BMX, motocross, windsurfing, snowboarding, cliff-diving, skating, freestyle motocross, rally, Formula 1 racing, to breakdancing.
Red Bull also supports specific extreme sports players. Especially, Felix Baumgartner’s(who is sponsored by Red Bull) free fall is live broadcasting throughout all over the world on Youtube and television, on SNS, three hundred thousand of people share the picture of the moment in just 30 minutes. It is very efficient to let many people know about the brand with sports sponsorship marketing, because its slogan and the concept of extreme sports are matched very well.
Red Bull sponsors not only sports but also music festivals and other events. The company shows its image based on creative and powerful passion at many festivals. In Korea, Red Bull was one of representative sponsor at many famous music festivals such as World DJ Festival and Ultra Music Festival(UMF). I went to UMF last year, I could see three-story big Red Bull lounges for VIP. It was so huge, so a lot of people could drink and dance inside there. They could enjoy activities by experiencing interesting facilities and drinks. I think it is very good way to advertise Red Bull drink. At music festival, many people want to enjoy and used up their energy. They don’t want to be exhausted in short time. In this situation, cool energy drink is useful to enjoy the party. Red Bull finds out when and where people want the drink and satisfies people’s needs.
There is another marketing that only Red Bull has been doing is ‘Red Bull Wings’. It’s a kind of viral marketing. ‘Wings’, which is similar to help advertise brand and consist of young women university students, come various festivals and event. They drive cute concept cars and give Red Bull energy drinks to people for free. Because of this promotion, SNS postings about ‘Wings’ can be easily spread and shared by many people in short time.
In an article, it said that Red Bull invests their 30 percent of profit on marketing. The company has been thinking about what would be effective to advertise their brand. Selling energy drink and sponsoring extreme sports team are different matter. However, they combined their product with the slogan and various supporting activities with their creative plans, and became the most famous and bestselling energy drink company.
References
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti2Lm4hb2ZY&feature=youtu.be
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbull
– http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Red-Bull-Wings-Team/001242965768603#wtr-content
Loyola Digital Advertising [로욜라 디지털 광고] 
The part of Red Bull’s marketing campaign that I notice the most is their free giveaways. About once a month, I see a Red Bull truck giving out free cans around campus. To me, this seems like a very effective way to gain consumer awareness, but I also wonder how much of their marketing efforts are spent on this particular tactic.
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I see Red Bull everywhere. Not only have I been given countless free cans, but it seems like almost every athlete and sporting event is sponsored by them. Everyone knows who they are. Even though I don’t drink Red Bull personally, I feel like I always say the phrase “I could use a Red Bull.”
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Reblogged this on Opinions on Marketing.
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I believe red bull marketing is effective combining both th usse of the extreme sports commericals and the wings program that hands out red bull on college campuses. this makes their brand very recognizable yet most people I know still don’t drink red bull depsite their love of the brand, why just because they don’t drink energy drinks so while the brand recognition is high I believe they should focus a bit more on the product itself.
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I think the Red Bull marketing techniques are very effective mainly because I think they reach such a large fan base. I think this campaign they have with men and extreme sports definitely reaches a lot of their fans. As for myself I think that something they do that always catches my attention are the free giveaways especially the campaigns that provide students or people on campus a free drink.
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Reblogged this on Marketing Management Blog and commented:
Nice topic regarding the integrated marketing communication
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I am obviously not in the target segment as I haven’t received one free can of Red Bull! That and the fact that I can’t remember the last time I bought a Red Bull. Yet I find it quite impressive that I know so much about their Brand and their tagline “Red Bull gives you wings”.
They obviously use a large array of marketing avenues to promote their brand and it is not surprising that either through TV, radio, internet, social media, sporting events or even obscure events like the cliff diving they sponsor, the general public become very familiar with their Brand. I can only imagine what it would be like if you were in their target segment.
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I’ve never ever tired Red Bull & never will. Energy drink, sure. Healthy, no way known. This stuff is potentially dangerous. Their marketing is certainly effective, but does anyone pay attention to the articles about the people who are admitted to hospital with Palpitations & Ventricular Tachycardia (Abnormally fast heart beat)? Not to mentiion it’s addictive. I am appalled at the number of tradies, young & old alike who start the day with Red Bull & a cigarette! Parents who buy it for their kids are crazy. Their marketing is obviously effective as they know their target really well & free give aways are a great way to increase awareness, lure new customers & reward loyal customers.
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