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Red Bull Brand Dissemination Red Bull Brand Dissemination How does the Red Bull brand engage with its fans through extreme sport video content on social media and on the Red Bull TV website? A cross-platform study of the most-engaging videos Master in New Media and Digital culture Faculty of Humanities Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) - Master Thesis - Arnaud Muller June 2017 Supervisor: mw. dr. Anne Helmond Second reader: dhr. dr. Niels van Doorn Abstract This research combines the study of the Red Bull and Red Bull TV Facebook pages, the Red Bull YouTube channel and the digital video service website Red Bull TV to analyse how video content is used by the brand in order to engage with its fans online. The videos that raised the highest engagement number on social media have been taken as case studies in order to understand not only how the Red Bull brand engages with its fans, but also what type of content its fans interact with. By means of a content analysis concerning the potential emotional charge, segmentation, electronic word of mouth and brand networks surrounding the videos displayed by the brand, a study has been made of how fans and brands interact on social media. On the website, the concepts of interface and affordances provide further insight into the possible interactions between fans and brands online. The use of a digital method approach enabled the structure of information and helped to analyse how Red Bull manages its brand identity through fan participation in extreme sport video content, on social media and on the Red Bull website. Keywords: Affordances, engagement, Red Bull, Red Bull TV, fans, participatory culture, brand identity, brand image, brand social identity, co-production, branded entertainment, emotional charge, electronic word of mouth, brand networks, used-value lifestyle, segmentation, niche sport. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4 II. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework ................................................................... 8 III. Description of the Method ............................................................................................... 17 Red Bull’s brand sphere online ................................................................................................ 17 Creation of the visualization .................................................................................................... 18 Data in the visualization ........................................................................................................... 18 Object of study .......................................................................................................................... 19 Fifty most-engaging videos on social media .......................................................................... 19 YouTube fifty most-engaging videos ....................................................................................... 20 Facebook fifty most-engaging videos ...................................................................................... 21 Website Affordances ................................................................................................................. 22 Part I: Interface Analysis of the Red Bull TV website ............................................................ 23 Part II: Social Media Analysis ................................................................................................... 24 Emotional charge ..................................................................................................................... 24 Segmentation .......................................................................................................................... 24 Electronic WOM ....................................................................................................................... 25 Brand Network ......................................................................................................................... 25 Facebook ‘like’ network. ..................................................................................................................... 26 YouTube linked channels and videos ................................................................................................. 26 Cross-platform comparison ..................................................................................................... 27 IV. Findings and Discussion .................................................................................................... 29 Part I: Interface Analysis of the Red Bull TV website ............................................................ 30 The Wayback machine ............................................................................................................ 31 Website affordances ................................................................................................................ 34 Part II: Social Media Analysis ................................................................................................... 36 Emotional charge ..................................................................................................................... 36 Segmentation .......................................................................................................................... 39 Electronic Word of Mouth ........................................................................................................ 41 Brand Networks ....................................................................................................................... 43 Cross-platform analysis ........................................................................................................... 48 V. Further research ............................................................................................................... 52 VI. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 53 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 56 Appendix ................................................................................................................................... 62 3 I. Introduction On the 14 October 2012, the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke a world record by jumping out of a balloon from the stratosphere reaching the speed of sound in his free fall back to Earth1. But another record was broken that day: the live stream on the YouTube social media platform reached “eight million concurrent views (…), marking the highest-ever concurrent viewing figure on the Google-owned site.”2 In partnership with the Red Bull energy drink, this project entitled “Red Bull Stratos” cost the company around 50 million euro, according to estimations provided by the German Newspaper Handelsblatt.3 This investment in the “Red Bull Stratos” project exemplifies the peculiar marketing strategy the brand is using as well as the global culture it has built around the single product company in order to engage with consumers. Moreover, the live YouTube broadcast of Baumgartner’s jump illustrates how video content can be effectively used by brands to reach or engage with online customers. As reported by Joon Ian Wong, one of the main reasons for the increasing use of video content online by brands in the past two decades is the Content Delivery Network (CDN) evolution. This technological change has allowed video content to be updated online and viewed without interruptions “by reducing the distance it has to travel to a viewer”, becoming “buffer-free” experiences (Wong, Ian Joon). This innovation has made the online video experience much more engaging and enjoyable for users and for this reason it is increasingly used by companies to share consumer-interactive videos to convey a brand message. Additionally, since the early 2000s, as stated by Pletikosa and Michahelles, “the rise and continued growth of Social Networks have attracted the interest of companies who see the potential to transmit their marketing messages to the customers” (843). In this digital context, this study will focus on how the Red Bull brand engages with consumers through online video entertainment. Back in 1976, when the Thai energy drink called Krating Daeng - meaning ‘Red Bull’ in Thai - was created by Chaleo Yoovidhya, the CEO of TC Pharmaceutical, he detected that “the energy products are quite interesting and has a growth potential in Thailand market.”4 A couple of years later, on April 1987, with the help of Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull 1 http://www.redbullstratos.com/the-mission/world-record-jump/ 2 http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/red-bull-stratos-skydive-smashes-youtube- records/1154746#GqDSmS62ewU8uEH1.99 3 http://www.handelsblatt.com/panorama/aus-aller-welt/ted-bull-stratos-teddybaer-schlaegt-felix- baumgartner/8704042.html 4 http://export.redbullthailand.com/index.php/corporate/data 4 energetic drink entered the market in Austria.5 Only two years after Red Bull’s introduction into the market, the Formula 1 Driver Gerhard Berger became the very “first Red Bull sponsored athlete.”6 Today the brand sponsors 666 athletes across 67 countries and sold more than 6 billion cans in 2016
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