The pillars of X-sport industry: Red Bull.

As you know, all the biggest extreme sport events are being held by such giant corporations as Rip Curl, Burton, Red Bull, The North Face e.t.c. These brands can afford to sponsor entire teams and various contests, in exchange for the advertising. I had an opportunity to work with a couple of such companies, and I had enough experience to form an opinion about them.

Every brand has its own history, and if the Burton’s story of success reminds everyone of a Cinderella fairy tale, the strategy of Red Bull Company seems to resemble the dark and pagan medieval times. Their aggressive methods of self-promotion have crossed all the possible lines – they unexpectedly show up on random extreme events, driving those bizarre cars with huge Red Bull cans sticking out of the roof. Promo-girls are jumping out of the vehicles with a magical “Would anyone like a Red Bull?”. As soon as the trunk full of free energy drinks is empty, promo-team jumps back in the car and drives away, before security guards could catch them. And the trick is that nobody can complain about an unauthorized advertisement, because legally company did nothing wrong - they were just accidently passing by, feeling especially generous that day for no legitimate reason.

It is impossible to calculate, how much money Red Bull Company saved so far by not wasting it on what is supposed to be honest business relationship. All I know is that Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of the company and the holder of 49% of the shares, recently bought an island in Pacific Ocean for $7.000.000. Somehow, I have the feeling, that those who were fooled by the R.B.C. should look for their money somewhere not far from Fiji.

(c) Robert Price

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