Free Fall to viewership

on October 2012, Red Bull launched their, “Longest Free-fall” ad campaign.    For those who haven’t seen it, it is a Red Bull sponsored video where a free faller “balloons his way up to the stratosphere and jumps down in an astronaut suite breaking the world record for longest free fall.  For those who have not seen it, link at the bottom.  Why would the brand, Red Bull, sponsor such an expensive, and out of the ordinary campaign?    

no bad red bull....

As seen on the displayed table, the Red Bull brand became the undisputed, most viewed brand within the month of October where as last month, it did not even place.  About 3x more views than it’s runner up, and about 7.5x more viewership than Barack Obama one month before the 2012 presidential elections, it’s interest is in no doubt from its shocking free fall campaign.  How did something like that work?

                    The article, “Why Red Bull's space jump was worth the risk” on iMediaConnection.com talks about how the company “Red Bull,” marketing plan does not necessarily focus on setting up their own ad space unlike traditional media which pay for the amount of traffic they receive.  The article talks about how Red Bull uses its funds in order to own an “idea.”  “By owning any idea, brands become a source for audiences.”   This idea is amplified with the use of targeted media such as Social Networks.  Searches related to this idea will be, more or less, connected to your brand.  A viewer does not have to know about a brand in order for its content to be displayed in their search windows, or being viewed.   If a person were to keep browsing content for this specific idea, they are to eventually land on the brand itself.  With the interst generated from the videos itself, viewers are also more willing to share these videos with other consumers (viral marketing.)  In a sense, the buzz generated through owning an idea markets itself.  



links- 
Articel source:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/33152.asp?imcid=nav
Red Bull viral video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I