One fine Sunday morning, Social Media goes up in flames. Not literally, but because of the hot news and global trend of a man (Felix Baumgartner) leaping off the balloon 24 miles above earth, breaking the sound barrier and creating a few world records.

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This was not a space jump, this was a RED BULL SPACE JUMP!

One of the most talked about events of the year was sponsored by the energy drink Red Bull, and the way branding and promotions were carried out were so impeccable that a newspaper without an article on “Red bull Stratos” would be literally trashed.

This event, which was streamed on YouTube by approximately eight million viewers sent the conversations running through the roof, maximum of which was seen on Twitter (which was a witness to several hashtags trending through the day)

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The event drew over 2.6 million mentions (*woot*) on Sunday alone(stats from Salesforce Marketing Cloud and blog).

Red Bull has established a great social media presence and even better commitment to brand themselves through sponsorships. Go to any event/sport, be it a college fest in Bangalore, India or a Motocross in US, you are very likely to find Red Bull banners flying high.

This particular piece of article from Darren Heitner( Forbes article ) includes thoughts of Ben Sturner, President and CEO of Leverage Agency on the success of Red Bull’s branding.

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“Sturner believes that the Red Bull Stratos was one of the greatest marketing stunts by Red Bull, and perhaps the greatest marketing stunt of all time. Importantly, Sturner says that there is no way the Red Bull brand could get cut out of the press coverage.”

We would more than agree with him. Red Bull has not only been successful in attaching itself with one of the most talked about event of the year, but has also created a tsunami of conversations across various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

How they leveraged social media?

  • YouTube: YouTube was the place to watch the event. They made sure people come to watch the event, and when they do, they don’t go back without having anything to say about it
  • Twitter: They went on a full throttle with second by second updating of the event on Twitter handle dedicated to the event.
  • Facebook: They Deployed the same strategy as Twitter. Minute by minute update on the event with addition of Instagram feeds on the page.

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So how can you create buzz for your brand?

  • Associate with something phenomenal. It does not have to be a man jumping from the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, but a rock show on the grounds of a F1 race track will do.
  • Use social media to it’s fullest. Go forth and experiment. Use the bullet theory that you learnt in marketing and throw more and more relevant information at the audience.
  1. Create a hashtag that has your brand name in it.
  2. Live streaming is the way to go.
  3. Images have the power to speak a thousand words. use them.
  4. Engage influencers if possible. It is always good to have someone who people trust and look up to on your side
  • Create conversations. If the intent is good, and your story has the power, conversations will come. create conversations, nurture them till they grow into viral trees.

Image source: http://www.redbullstratos.com/gallery/

Original Source: http://www.radian6.com/blog/2012/10/how-red-bull-stratos-successfully-soared-across-social-media

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