There aren’t many places in the world where you can’t find Red Bull—or its events. Austria-based Red Bull GMBH owns the energy drink, 4,204 billion cans of which were sold in 2010. Event teams based in more than 160 countries produce the sports-centric, daring projects for which the brand is now well known.
Among them was the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship, which kicked off the new year on the banks of the frozen Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota. The title battle in the 12th season of the winter sport (a combination of ice hockey, downhill skating, and boardercross) continued with stops in the Netherlands and Sweden before concluding in Quebec before a crowd of more than 100,000 spectators in March. (The St. Paul race marked the return of the action to the United States for the first time since 2004.)
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, which the brand bills as the most prominent competitive platform for the sport, brought together divers from nine countries to compete in seven events in 2011. The Boston leg of the tour in August was the series’ inaugural East Coast stop. For the first time in the competition’s three-year history, Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis was among the judges.
Closer to home—and some might say less physically risky than the two prior events—Red Bull LAN (for local area network) took to Santa Monica, California, in the fall. The invite-only professional gaming performance camp took gamers to a training facility to help broaden their skills and prepare them for their upcoming professional competitions in Red Bull-fueled 10-hour daily sessions.
Other sports-event platforms include Red Bull Manny Mania for skaters, which concluded in August with a championship in New York after hosting qualifiers and finals around the country, and Red Bull Dream Line, a contest for BMX bikers. Red Bull is also aligned with Formula One racing, owning and operating two teams: Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. (Red Bull Racing is the two-time defending champion, to boot.)
In December, the NBC Sports Group and its action-sports arm Alli, along with Austria-based media company Red Bull Media House, announced a long-term partnership for the development of a new property, the Red Bull Signature Series. It kicked off in January and will bring 35 hours of action-sports programming—including events like Crashed Ice and Dream Line—to NBC and the NBC Sports Network throughout the year.
Among the brand’s other major new initiatives in 2011 was the launch of its magazine, The Red Bulletin, which has a monthly circulation of more than a million, mostly subscribers of major U.S. newspapers.
A nationwide slate of events heralded the mag’s launch. The kickoff in Chicago drew 250 people, including an array of Red Bull athletes. An event in New York was next, where about 500 attendees came to District 36. In Los Angeles, 800 guests took over the nightclub Drai’s. And Miami’s New World Center was the location for 450 guests in that city, including Super Bowl champion Reggie Bush. The magazine’s content was introduced at all parties amid top-name DJs and entertainers, virtual printing press installations, blown-up magazine covers, and demos of the mag’s iPad app.
