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Red bull
Red Bull didn’t just create a product—it created a movement. What started as a strange energy tonic from Thailand exploded into one of the boldest branding stories in business history.
What you will learn:
How to Build a Brand that Everyone Loves– See how Red Bull transformed a strange energy drink into a global cult brand by wrapping it in adrenaline, rebellion, and myth.
Scaling a Niche Idea Into a Global Powerhouse – Learn how Red Bull exploded from an Austrian startup into a billion-dollar empire by blending bold storytelling, ruthless focus, and global ambition.
Inventing a New Playbook for Marketing – Discover how Red Bull didn’t just market products—they built culture, pioneering content, events, and experiences that redefined how brands capture attention.
I hope you enjoy it.
Red Bull
Forget what you think you know about business strategy. Red Bull didn’t climb to the top by playing it safe—it tore up the rulebook and rewrote it in its own language. Selling more than energy, it sold rebellion, velocity, and myth. Today, it moves over 12 billion cans a year across the world, but its road to cultural dominance was paved with crazy bets, underground marketing, and pure audacity
How Red Bull started
The story of Red Bull begins in the mid-1980s, when Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz was working as a marketing executive for a toothpaste company. Constantly traveling across Asia, he struggled with jet lag until, on a trip to Thailand, he stumbled upon a curious local beverage: Krating Daeng. It wasn’t polished or sleek—it came in a small gold can, tasted great, and was marketed to truck drivers and laborers who needed to stay awake on the job.
Mateschitz tried it—and claimed it cured his jet lag almost instantly. Right there, thousands of miles from home, he realized two things: first, that the drink worked, and second, that nothing like it existed back in Europe.
Most people would have left it at that. But Mateschitz wasn’t like most people. He spent weeks negotiating with Krating Daeng’s creator, Chaleo Yoovidhya, a Thai self-made millionaire who had grown up in poverty. They struck a deal: a 49/49 partnership (with 2% for Chaleo’s son), and a shared vision of taking the drink global.
They didn't just export Krating Daeng—they reengineered it for a new audience. Mateschitz tweaked the flavor, tripled the price, and rebranded it as "Red Bull," complete with a fierce new logo of two charging bulls.
In one of his boldest early moves, Mateschitz set Red Bull’s initial marketing budget higher than its first-year sales projection. Investors thought he was crazy. But Mateschitz believed if you could create a mythos around the brand early, you could dominate forever.
Instead of relying on traditional ads, Red Bull engineered a cult following. The team staged manufactured scarcity: they'd deliberately scatter empty cans outside nightclubs and college campuses, making it seem like everyone was already drinking it. Sometimes, they would “run out” of Red Bull at events on purpose, creating a mystique of exclusivity.
When Red Bull finally launched in Austria in 1987, it didn’t just sell a product—it invented the energy drink industry.
Overcoming Barriers with Extreme Branding
Launching an expensive, strange-tasting drink in a skeptical market wasn’t easy. Traditional advertising wasn’t going to cut it. Red Bull needed to create its own culture.
Rather than chase the mainstream, Red Bull embedded itself in subcultures: extreme sports, nightlife, adventure travel. It sponsored obscure athletes in niche sports, hosted outrageous parties, and positioned itself as the brand for those who lived on the edge.
The goal wasn’t broad appeal—it was to become the insider’s brand, something aspirational.
The genius move was that Red Bull didn’t just associate with culture—it created it. Events like the Red Bull Flugtag, where contestants build homemade flying machines and launch themselves into the water, became viral sensations before "viral" was even a word.
Red Bull wasn’t selling an energy drink—it was selling a sense of freedom, rebellion, and pushing human limits.
The slogan “Red Bull Gives You Wings” became more than marketing. It became a mission statement.
Scaling Up: From Beverage to Media Empire
As Red Bull grew, it didn’t just stick to selling drinks—it expanded aggressively into media, sports, and entertainment.
Mateschitz believed that owning the distribution channels was just as important as owning the brand. Red Bull launched Red Bull Media House, producing documentaries, films, and magazines. It organized its own events, sponsored record-breaking stunts, and even bought professional sports teams like Red Bull Racing (Formula 1) and RB Leipzig (European soccer).
One of Red Bull’s defining moments came in 2012 with the Red Bull Stratos project. In front of a live global audience of over 8 million people, skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space, breaking the sound barrier with his body alone. It was the ultimate brand activation—a perfect embodiment of Red Bull’s ethos of human daring and pushing boundaries.
Behind all of it was Mateschitz, who lived as boldly as he built his brand. He kept a famously low profile, avoided interviews, and spent his fortune funding passions like restoring vintage planes and maintaining his private island in Fiji. Until his death in 2022, he continued to treat Red Bull like a private, founder-led mission, not just a business.
Today, Red Bull operates in over 170 countries, sells billions of cans per year, and remains the blueprint for how brands can build entire ecosystems far beyond their original products.
Lessons
Lesson 1: Sell the Dream, Not the Product
Red Bull never marketed caffeine or ingredients. It sold human flight, limitless energy, and defying gravity. People didn’t buy Red Bull because they were thirsty—they bought it because they wanted to be part of a story bigger than themselves.
Lesson 2: Manufacture Scarcity to Fuel Desire
Instead of flooding markets, Red Bull withheld product at key events, staged "empty can" campaigns at nightclubs, and engineered the feeling that you were lucky to get your hands on a can. Scarcity wasn’t a problem to solve—it was a tool to create social proof.
Lesson 3: Obsess Over Mythology, Not Metrics
Mateschitz famously avoided traditional focus groups and marketing research, believing that myth beats market data. Instead of asking customers what they wanted, Red Bull showed them a new way to live—and let the legend spread organically.
Lesson 4: Build an Empire Around Your Core Brand
By owning its own media house, sports teams, and event properties, Red Bull turned a beverage into a content machine. The product was just the entry point—the real business was building an ecosystem where everything fed back into the brand mythos.
Lesson 5: Stay Private to Stay Bold
Mateschitz kept Red Bull private for almost his entire life, refusing IPOs and public reporting. Why? So he could make long-term bets without Wall Street second-guessing his vision. Control gave him freedom to be radically bold.