December 18, 2024
International Campaigns

HOW REDBULL’S MARKETING CHANGED THE ENTIRE GAME

The best thing a brand can get when marketing their product is the people’s attention. Marketing runs on the reception of attention. More so when you’re a new entrant in the market. Attention is what increases brand equity and getting the public’s attention is probably one of the hardest things to do.
Turns out, getting the public’s attention has always been one of the hardest things for a brand to do, whether they started in the digital age or in the 20th century.

However, one brand had a very effective way of getting attention.
When RedBull first planned the launch of their energy drink in London in the 80s and 90s, they were advised to stick to the traditional medium of marketing their product, i.e, print, billboards, radio, televisions, etc.
Be that as it may, Redbull was adamantly against it, they were looking for a better and more innovative product launch that would immediately get the public’s attention. They wanted to stick out like a sore thumb so that all the attention would be on them.

The brand crushed scores of their energy drink cans and placed them on top of garbage cans all over crowded places that their target audience might visit -from nightclubs, bars, and pubs to footpaths, stations, near college, and office vicinities. The next day, London woke up to garbage cans completely infiltrated by RedBull cans.

In an instant, the city knew what RedBull was and what they had to offer. Their sales went over the roof and currently, the brand owns 25% of the energy drink market, which equates to about $2.89 billion dollars in sales.

What worked for RedBull was their deep understanding of their target audience and rivals. Instead of catering to all possible audiences, RedBull stuck to their guns and marketed their products to a very particular demographic. They knew what the demographic needed and catered to their needs perfectly. And despite energy drinks and coffee serving the same purpose (boosting energy), RedBull knew that it would fail if it competed with well-known coffee brands like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, they decided to target the demographic at evenings and nights – a time that the other brands had yet to use to market the products and also the time that customers craved energy.

RedBull has proved time and again that straying away from conventional forms of marketing might not be a bad thing. Creativity and a thorough knowledge of your audience base and product will do more for the brand than traditional media.

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