With Liverpool facing RB Leipzig tonight, The Beautiful Game looks at how Red Bull use PR and endorsements to help push them in the sporting world. Although dome people disagree with what they are doing in footballing terms. But there is no argument what they are doing is working and has been copied by the likes of Manchester City with Girona and Melbourne City etc.
Liverpool have profited from Red Bull's football teams with Takumi Minamino, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita all previously playing for a Red Bull club before joining the Reds. The six players affiliated with Red Bull and Liverpool can be found here: https://t.co/tUY5Oy5n5B?amp=1. Timo Werner and Dayot Upamecano have been strongly linked with the Reds also so Red Bull are clearly doing something write in the eyes of Liverpool.
Red Bull are massive players in the sporting world, the company was founded in 1987 in Austria and has became the biggest energy drink manufacturer in the world selling over 6.7 billion cans in the year 2018.
But they are not only known for the manufacture and sale of energy drinks but for the ownership and sponsorship of some of the biggest teams in sport. They own two Formula One racing teams, Red Bull racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri. The accusation of sports team is something that has proven very successful for Red Bull and improved their brand greatly, when people think of Red Bull they don't necessarily think of the energy drink straight away.
Their main tagline is "Red Bull gives you wings" and that has been the basis of their advertising and PR for years. It has a strong advertisement in extreme sports such as BMX, snowboarding or skateboarding. This fits with their tag lining as some stunts the extreme sport athletes achieve is almost like they have wings.
What interests me is their acquisitions of football teams, football teams generally have a history of being stand alone, fan owned business that have no outside ownership or any other associations with a football club. Many football fans, and perhaps rightly so, don't agree with this and it shouldn't be how football clubs should be run. But is that an old fashioned way to look at it? Many clubs run like this have went under or in real financial struggle and I can't see this happening to any club run by Red Bull. In a business sense it is a great accusation but in a love for football perhaps it isn't.
Their most successful team RB Leipzig in Germany are a good example of this, football in Germany has to have other 50% fan ownership and it is against rules in Germany to have brand names in the club hence why they are not officially called Red Bull Leipzig, like their Austrian partners Red Bull Salzburg, they are instead called RassenBallsSport Leipzig. But, they play exciting football with a lot of young players and they are doing well, they are a joy to watch and I feel this is what football clubs are going to be like going forward.
With teams in Austria, Germany, Brazil, and USA it is ever growing and in 2016 a rumour circulated that Red Bull would purchased football league club Swindon Town. This did not happen but the appointment of former Premier League manager and player Tim Sherwood as sporting director was perhaps a sign that it was happening. A press conference with Tim Sherwood showed cans of Red Bull on the table, perhaps showing that something was in the works but nothing became of it. Maybe it was a PR stunt to get English football fans talking?
One of their most successful and ambitious PR stunts was their Red Bull Stratos free fall which free faller Felix Baumgartner broke the records for the the highest altitude fallen from by a human and the highest manned balloon flight. He also became the first human to break the sound barrier without any form of engine power. The event was live streamed to YouTube and with 9.5 million live viewers, it broke their records for the most concurrent live viewers on any event. The event was one of the biggest sporting events of the year and it showed the ambition and scale that Red Bull can achieve in the sporting world.
Red Bull have made use of great PR by tapping into the sporting market and has transformed them to not only be a drinks manufacture but one of the most exciting sport owners in the world.
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