Red Bull can keep people up all night or give them an extra burst of power juice, but the company’s content marketing strategy may be responsible for its prominent place on the energy drink map. Mashable recently reported on Red Bull’s pervasiveness into consumer culture, explaining that Red Bull hasn’t marketed itself simply as an energy drink, but as a champion of the extreme. It’s become a publisher of exciting content, one that happens to sell a drink, according to Mashable.
“The marketing strategy that has worked best for us is not to publish our strategies,” a Red Bull representative told Mashable.
Marketers can take note of Red Bull’s success, as relevant custom content that keeps its target audience engaged has made Redbull one of today’s biggest brands. The company’s ability to become a powerhouse of exciting content has made it stand out from its competitors.
Creating exciting and extreme content
Indeed, if one visits Red Bull’s website, it’s obvious that the company is generating attractive content that goes above and beyond the appeal of a canned beverage. Users can watch videos of the Red Bull skateboarding team and a sponsored holiday light show after reading an article about Tegan and Sara’s latest album. A slideshow runs of exciting images that hits home for a younger demographic, one that Red Bull wants to target.
“Look, Red Bull has introduced its content marketing around and about the product, but it is never directly correlated to the drink itself,” said Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter Group. “Nobody is going to go to a website and spend 45 minutes looking at video about a drink. But Red Bull has aligned its brand unequivocally and consistently with extreme sports and action. They are number-one at creating content so engaging that consumers will spend hours with it, or at least significant minutes.”
The go-to energy drink, thanks to content marketing
Red Bull’s strategy isn’t just the source of extreme excitement. It’s also what has positioned the company as the go-to energy drink in the United States. Lieb also noted that Red Bull’s ability to achieve brand awareness has made it equally visible as Starbucks. She said it wasn’t quite at the level of McDonald’s, at least not yet.
Content marketers should head to Red Bull’s website to see how the brand has made itself noteworthy through the creation of custom content in the form of images, videos, blogs, articles and more. By carefully crafting a brand identity that includes extreme sports as well as an energy drink, Red Bull has risen to the top, thanks to content marketing.
