owner Logion Web Design
Copywriter, Inbound Marketing and SEO Consultant
What Marketing Strategies Can We Learn from Red Bull's Facebook Page?
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| Photo image from Wikipedia Red Bull page |
Masters of Content Marketing
As masters of content marketing, Red Bull has their own culture and target audience, and have one of the world's largest networks of engaging content. At the end of this blog there are ten content marketing strategies that we can learn from Red Bull.
With over 40 million fans - people who have "liked" their Facebook page - we know that they are doing something right.
Originally, their target audience was mainly younger men who love extreme sports, and that still seems to comprise their main audience, but it goes way beyond that and we see women posting and being active in their events both as athletes and fans.
The navigation menu on their website home page reads Motorsports, Bike, Surfing, Skateboarding, Adventure, and Music. The sports market is one that they focus on and are actively involved with on many levels such as sponsorship, advertising and endorsements. Anyone who loves these sports would be a target market, both men and women. Of course, the energy drink would also appeal to anyone who wants an energy boost as an alternative to coffee and that common behavior seems to be their larger appeal.
With over 5.2 billion cans of Red Bull energy drink sold in 2012, we can see that their marketing plan is working. The culture that has built up around Red Bull is a natural for social media and especially Facebook.
"The marketing strategy that has worked best for us is not to publish our strategies,"
says a Red Bull representative." (from Mashable 12/19/12 )
By reviewing the various aspects of their Facebook page; design, tabs, and posts, we can see how their marketing is integrated and serves their target audience in many ways that keeps them coming back for content as well as another energy boost drink. Although their marketing strategies are not discussed by management, we can still learn what seems to work for them with Facebook posts by how many likes and shares are being generated.
1) Overall Design
The cover photo of the earth with the sun rising is a strong visual and engages the first time page visitor to like the page just for this image alone, aside from their liking the brand. Update - their cover photo changes as a method of creating more engagement for fans. On February 12th 2014 they changed it to a motocross rider flying high in the air near a pagoda. The new image racked up over 17,000 likes and 650 shares.
2) Tabs and Pages
The three main tabs under the cover photo include Red Bull TV, Events, and Games/Apps. These open up into sub-pages which are like web pages inside the Facebook platform. The choice of these three show us the priority for their marketing.
Red Bull TV
The Red Bull TV Facebook page tab demonstrates the power of video as engaging content, and their Facebook page includes a main video as well as a selection of Featured Shows and Popular Shows. The main text message below the main video is "This is Red Bull TV ....Lean back and be entertained with the best content the world of Red Bull has to offer from action sports and motor sports to music and lifestyle, exclusively packed in one global 24/7 free web TV stream, any time any place."
Then there is a link to their own TV channel- "Watch Red Bull Web TV in full screen at redbull.tv." The idea of their own TV channel works in addition to their Youtube channel which has close to 3 million subscribers. They just got one more. I enjoyed watching "Forecasting the Perfect Swell - Red Bull Jaws 2013" , one of many sporting events that they sponsor.
Events and Game Apps
The Events tab opens to a page on Red Bull sponsored events from all over the world. The marketing of this tab is the access to fresh news and content from the main Facebook page, which seems to be the number two priority based on research and fan response. The Games and Apps tab has three main categories on the page; the Red Bull Arcade, Red Bull Mobile Apps, and the Faves from the Red Bull Drunkish Dials....voice messages that can be listened to right on the page and rated from 1-5 stars. Talk about engagement, this page hits a whole different level of their target audience, and the number of games and apps is impressive. This type of marketing development is out of reach for many small businesses. However, the concept of developing creative content that is related to your brand is shown here in spades.
Posting
The posting on Red Bull's Facebook page is a study of how they can engage with a variety of different types of posts which is par for their overall marketing. So on Monday morning such as today, November 4, 2013, what do we see? It's all about events and "must see" videos. For starters, how about Kayaking the Big Banana waterfall at 10am EST, getting 8970 likes, 288 comments and 1364 shares within two hours.Now that's engagement. More posts to follow.
Red Bull has more than one Facebook page beyond their main brand page and it makes sense to target specific audiences such as race car fans or extreme x sports fans. There is a Red Bull Racing page for their Infiniti Red Bull Racing Team - https://www.facebook.com/redbullracing , and the "official Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour Facebook Page - freestyle motocross madness!", both with over one million fans. (https://www.facebook.com/RedBullXfighters). Then there is the Red Bull Signature Series page - https://www.facebook.com/RedBullSignatureSeries - that "unleashes the most progressive and innovative competitions around the globe."
Here's a post from this morning on the Red Bull Racing Team page showcasing the Abu Dhubai 2013 Grand Prix with a link to the live podcast from the Red Bull Team.
http://www.infiniti-redbullracing.com/audio/team-podcast-2013-abu-dhabi-grand-prix
Humor works. On their main Facebook page we really see genius in content creation and engagement with a poke at the NSA and cartoon posted on Facebook after the news that the NSA had hacked into Google user databases. "Hacked again - crack the can" - "It would be so much easier to spy on our citizens of they stopped drinking Red Bull." The wings that are shown reminding those who know their slogan "Gives you wings" and the demographic of characters are middle aged men and women holding a can of Red Bull. This is a cool cartoon that uses humor to promote a top brand based on a current news event.
15,000
Their 2013 World of Red Bull "Gives You wings" Commercial Says a lot with the short video.
The ongoing active sports events worldwide provide Red Bull extensive opportunities to participate, create, engage, and brand their concept as well as their product and they are masters of marketing. Red Bull not only markets by participating in worldwide sports events, it is changing the face of sports, and having an influence on how certain sports events are organized. They are a major player and they do it well.
Ten Facebook Content Marketing Strategies That We Can Learn from Red Bull
1) Don't Publish Your Marketing Secrets or Strategies
2) Associate Your Brand with a Popular local or national popular category....music, sports, etc
(even if it is only a one time event....micro-marketing local vs large scale national)
3) Start Posting and building interest in this category on your Facebook page
4) Post on Facebook consistently with engaging content without mentioning your brand
5) Create a joke, cartoon or spin with your brand based on current news.
6) Follow Red Bull on Facebook to see what they post, the likes, shares, and comments
7) Subscribe to Red Bull TV on Youtube to see how they engage their fans
8) Have a passion for your brand and engage your target audience
9) Use your own or a third party's creativity to be original, unique, and distinctive in your industry.
10) Develop a marketing plan that has the above ideas, diversity, and relevant content that is published frequently and engages the site viewer, blog reader, Youtube viewer to evoke response to your own brand
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David Brown
David Brown is a Certified Content Marketer and an award winning internet marketing consultant. As owner of Logion Web Design, he has been in the SEO and content marketing industry since 1999. He is the sole author and publisher of this blog, Likes, Tweets and SEO, and also is the owner of Dentist Webmaster LLC, launched in 2013. He offers consulting and is accepting qualified accounts for monthly advanced SEO and content marketing services. His dog's name is Shaman.
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