Social Listening: Red Bull "Wiiings" of Social Media

   The company/brand that I had selected to do my "Social Listening in Marketing" post on Red Bull. As you may, or may not, know Red Bull is a brand of energy drink. I would even say it is the most popular energy drink in the market. In support of my claim, an article on the website Caffeine Informer, written by editor James Foster in which details how the Red Bull drink had the most sales (around $3,259,914,735) for an energy drink, in 2022. This had piqued my interest as, personally, I had rarely needed or drunk caffeinated drinks. Though this may be subject to change in the future, as I have noticed that I have subsequently drunk more and more caffeinated drinks as I have gotten older. However in my personal opinion I can’t discern the difference between each energy drink. Which puzzles, yet intrigue, me as to what makes Red Bull stand out in the market?

    The value proposition of Red Bull has always been built around their slogan “Red Bull gives you wings”. The slogan is quite unique and “catchy”, while signifying how the Red Bull drink gives you metaphoric wings indicating the boost in energy you get from consuming it.

    If you didn’t know, Red Bull has a large and engaging social media presence. Though a strategy, or way in which they conduct their social media presence is that displays very little of the actual product. In spite of Red Bull’s social media personas having very little to deal with their products. The engagement and content of Red Bull’s twitter, instagram, facebook, etc. are actually quite positive and interactive. To further explain, their content is mainly of the many sports sponsorships. The sponsorships are a variety of star athletes varying from all the different sports teams/people they have relationships with. A quick dive into their socials, as of the publishing of this blog, show that it may still be motor vehicle and skiing/snowboarding season still. Though it is hard to get a feel of what Red Bulls’ fan base thinks/feels about the company, from their social media. I can say that their social media’s host a digital space where they can fester and share their opinions on things (typically centered around the post). One popular post on their twitter page (@redbull), which has 907.2k views, 10.5k likes, and 317 comments, had a comment by @rakepingpong stating “Social media manager accidentally leaked the RB20 and RB21”. This comment, which is an inside joke that the racing fans have of their F1 car, had gotten 457 likes with 5,661 views. While checking on their instagram, it is quite discernible to see that Red Bull is active and engaging throughout their page. For example, in one of their posts, about their flugtag team, @pierreb__  just asks “What's the world record for this?” in which Red Bull’s instagram team responds with the answer (257ft, so this was CLOSE 👏). These small interactions may not seem like a lot but responding to comments, especially from your followers, adds onto the reputation/perception of the company whether intentionally, or not. Plus it takes little to no effort to just go through what people say and respond. Another example on instagram was about a post about Nyck De Vries (@nyckdevries), a Red Bull sponsored F1 driver. In the post, which just showcases Nyck working out, there was a comment from their other account @redbullmotorsports. The team behind the @redbullmotorsports account just commented, “GO Nyck 🔥💪🏻🏁”. This comment by the @redbullmotorsports account had gotten 653 likes.  @redbull then commented “😤👏🔥”, this response had gotten them to a whopping 161 likes.

    At the time of writing this article, there are 121 total different Red Bull social media accounts (Twitter: 42, Facebook: 29, Instagram: 36, Youtube: 12, and LinkedIn: 2 https://unmetric.com/brands/red-bull). I want to divulge deeper into some specific platforms, such as Instagram. On the main Red Bull instagram account (@redbull), they currently have 16.9 million followers with around 9415 posts. On this platform they seem to get fairly positive interactions on their posts, in which they post around 1-2 times a day. I wanna note this is one of their 36 accounts just on the platform Instagram. While the content on these platforms entails more on sporting moments, specifically their sponsored events and athletes. Rather I would have expected that their main social media accounts would divulge more on Red Bull’s products. I do like the direction that Red Bull’s social media team is taking, as most companies are mainly exerted as promotional content. Though, I do think that Red Bull has gone a little above and beyond in a negative way. Specifically in the sense that after scrolling through their twitter and instagram accounts there's little to nothing about their product.

    In spite of their lack of product promotion, what Red Bull does “right” on social media is their brand promotion. As previously mentioned, the main content that is displayed on their vast social media accounts are of their sponsored athletic/sporting teams and players. Though this is quite unusual from the outside looking in, I in fact acknowledge and commend this path. The Red Bull social media team incorporates newsjacking in the sports world. While another example of how in which Red Bull engages with the public is through their incredibly catchy and recognizable slogan, which they incorporate in the form of hashtags, “Red Bull gives you wings” (#givesyouwiiings). Despite Red Bull’s well curated content on their social media, there are examples and companies who have created an objectively more well rounded strategy. Surprisingly, in particular, a great example of a social media page that is a cut above the rest is Red Bull’s competitor Monster Energy. Even though the two companies are close in the amount of sales, Red Bull currently runs the market for energy drinks. So when researching for examples I was shocked when coming across Monster Energy’s social media. Firstly, they currently (as of the day of posting) have around 3,033,251 followers on twitter (Red Bull Twitter: 2,024,920 followers). On Monster’s twitter page, they had everything I thought Red Bull’s twitter page could improve upon. For instance, Monster Energy actually had posts about their products. Specifically, Monster promoted their seasonal/limited edition cans or flavors of their products. While, though this may be subjective, their posting just seems more developed and unique. I do have to note that this may result from Monster’s more well rounded field/list of sponsored influencers and events. It seems as though Monster Energy has a diverse field from which they sponsor, or tie their brand to. Seeing on Monster’s twitter, that there are posts about music events and sports in which Red Bull doesn’t showcase. This does not mean that Red Bull’s social media is leaps and bounds behind Monster Energy. Quite the contrary, as Red Bull’s instagram has a whopping 17 million followers while Monster Energy’s instagram has 8.2 million followers. Showcasing how Red Bull’s social media direction can work, but everything can always be improved upon.

    I had always wondered why Red Bull used the tag #givesyouwiiings. Questioning why there are three i’s instead of one? Thinking that, maybe they just want to be different and add some style points. However in doing this assignment I found out that, in 2014, Red Bull had to pay a settlement of around 13 million dollars. As this was in response to a growing resentment towards the company’s slogan. One particular person felt so deceived that Benjamin Careather filed a lawsuit against the company, in 2013. Benjamin, an avid drinker of Red Bull since 2002, found that there was no noticeable boost or “wings” you  would get from consuming the drink. I believe that Red Bull had approached the situation just like any other person would. Albeit that Red Bull had no other choice. Though I am uncertain if they had a chance of fighting the case, the fact that they agreed to the settlement shows there was little to nothing they could do. I believe that it was the best decision they could have done with their cards. Plus the extra i’s in #givesyouwiiings does not really affect anything, to add to my claim is Red Bull’s growth from that point. However I do think the whole circumstance and claim is kinda ridiculous.

    This may sound generic however I honestly do like and would have chosen the same decisions Red Bull did, in this specific circumstance. Specifically the addition with the extra i’s is quite smart. As they don’t change a slogan that is already intertwined with the company.

    In doing this assignment I found a good example of how to brand and represent a company through social media. While also learning the importance of investing the right amount of time, effort, and money into a company’s social media. No longer viewing social media in the eyes of the consumer but as a producer of content. Seeing how social media could be used as a tool to further my brand.

Sources:

https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-15-top-energy-drink-brands

https://www.morellilaw.com/red-bull-puts-up-13m-to-settle-false-advertising-suit/