Red Bull Stratos, oh my!
Remember when space missions were broadcast in black and white on TV? They were a speckle, an event, a pretty big deal that everyone was talking about. Disbelief that we lived in such an amazing, daring age.
Yeah, I don’t remember those either. I wasn't alive. But my parents remember the first mission to the moon, and I can relate to the nostalgia of space launches via my parent’s memories as well as scenes from movies that take place during that time period.
Red Bull’s Stratos campaign took place in 2013. The basic idea was that Felix Baumgartner - already a record breaking base Jumper, Skydiver and all around daredevil - would break the world record of highest free fall. Building on Red Bull’s moto “Red Bull Gives You Wings” Baumgarter free fell from 24 miles above the earth. It was live streamed and talked about for weeks before the event. Talk about the event started via social media, twitter, youtube, Facebook, and went on to have traditional ad spots on TV. As the event got closer the jump also gained attention of journalists and news broadcasters.
Red Bull was able to tap into several different target audiences with this sponsored event. There was the niche extreme sports crowd, science and technology enthusiasts, people who were already fans of the drink, the older folks reminiscing back on the space age, not to mention the attention that was brought to an older audience later on in the campaign via traditional news reporting. With more coverage of the event, more consumers were discussing and sharing it via social media. It was already in a shareable format (YouTube, Twitter, etc.) which is ideal for spreadability. Besides Red Bull building on what they already had - their moto-, a wide target audience, portable content another aspect of what made this spreadable was the aspect of the hoax. It seemed impossible this man wouldn't die falling from the upper reaches of the atmosphere. As any normal person with a healthy sense of curiosity, I needed to see is he was actually going to jump.
The free fall was the most watched lived streamed event in digital history. Red Bull continued to release content after the event providing a regular stream of material that could potentially gain footing with the audience that watched this live event.
The Jump.