Red Bull's Big F1 Party

All I can say after reading one of the articles and seeing several photos is I wish I would have been on the invited guest list! The livery on the Toro Rosso cars is absolutely awesome - can't wait to see it in less than 10 hours on tv. The horns extending from the "head" (driver seat) are really neat.

Here's a sampling from one of the write-ups:

"The world's press and a galaxy of VIP guests were invited to attend the '1002nd Arabian Night' on a private island off the coast of Bahrain. Oil lamps lit the way down a kilometre of carpet to the venue where everything Arabia is famous for was on show. Dancers and musicians entertained everyone as they feasted on delicious local cuisine, prior to the action speeding up on stage. Film of the two teams in action culminated in some atmospheric footage of all four cars from both teams racing one another around the Paul Ricard Circuit in the South of France.

Then, in a moment straight out of every cliché of Arabian culture, a Red Bull Racing car and Scuderia Toro Rosso machine swept through the air on hidden wires to arrive on stage as if on a Magic Carpet. The new liveries reflect the fact that Red Bull's two teams are in competition with one another but are very much part of the same family. As the obligatory dry ice swirled around the cars, the six drivers stepped out on stage to an enthusiastic welcome from the one thousand strong crowd."

On a slightly different avenue . . I also read that Red Bull is possibly looking for a works engine from a major car manufacturer - apparently there's been some collaboration with Volkswagen and Audi. I can visualize an F1 Rabbit!that would certainly fall into the ranks with the cost savings talks or better yet an Audi diesel! That will be an interesting story to follow since RBR is using the Ferrari engines . . .

Carol

 

Last year in Melb our apartment was across the docks from the RedBull party and it was HUGE. We tried to sneak in but way too many security guards around. I think it was close to $2mill they spent on it. All the A-List celebs of Oz were there as well as some VIP's from O/S.

Looks like they spent even more this time

 

It scares me to think of the costs of all the different RB sporting ventures - not just in F1 but all of them - and I don't know anyone here or in yurrup drinking the stuff, and I am in contact with A LOT of people......

I can't help but think of an Enron-esque collapse at some point in the future.

 

You know I was thinking the same thing, I know the stuff isnt that cheep (2.50$CND) but they can't be selling THAT much of the stuff. Something doesn't add up.

 

I'm thinking if there was THAT MUCH money to be made in it or THAT MUCH P.R. to be created by doing what they are doing, Budweiser, Miller, Coors, or even Coke, Pepsi, Reebok or Nike would have done it long long ago........

I can see it now: Coca-Cola buys a soccer team and renames it the Coke-Heads.....
Then again, Bennetton bought Toleman, but also, that was what, 21 years ago, and the costs were a lot less ? I also think they sold much more product than RB is, BWDIK ?

 

I've said that for the last couple years! Besides their commitment to Sauber, it seemed like every athlete in the world had a Red Bull sticker on his/her helmet, ala Marlboro in the 70's and 80's. The owner of Red Bull (I always forget his name) also recently purchased a soccer (football) club in the U.S.

I know nothing about the drink industry, but I wonder if his company sells to a lot of the other brands. I mean, there are waaaaaay too many copy cat brands and they all taste the same.

 

Due to their support for motorsports of all flavors, I decided to try RedBull. I ended up liking it. I do agree that it is overpriced, but I think they have had a large positive impact on motor racing.

 

As long is it really cold it's good but warm is a different story. A four-pack at Walmart is just over $6.

Carol

 

I drink one every day. I have a friend that used to drink 4 a day. At night, my servers all have one.... Trust me, they are selling the stuff. Red Bull and Vodka is a very popular drink in the clubs as well.
Anything I can do to support F1.

 

I have often thought the same thing....just imagine how much ONE F1 team cost to run for a season. Major auto manufacturers think long and hard about fielding one team, let alone two, and many of them have gotten out after only a few seasons. Ford sells a lot more cars than Red Bull sells drinks, if you know what I mean. I don't know anyone who drinks the stuff, except to occasionally mix it with vodka at a bar. Maybe Red Bull is the front for the mafia or that new one-world-order we keep hearing about. Don't get me wrong, I love the money and excitement they bring to motorsport, but for the life of me I can't see how they afford it.

 

I keep thinking about JLP Racing, and J David, and the Whittington's....... not in a BAD way, but just the way they collapsed.

 

I have taken this article from Forbes.com . It looks from the figures that the publicity activities might just be supported by thier revenues. But then again this is finance,commerce and economics, and what do i know about it?


" Clever marketing helped Dietrich Mateschitz turn a so-so beverage into a billion-dollar brand.
Red Bull, the "energy" drink created by Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, doesn't taste very good. Nor does it sound very appealing: The berry-flavored beverage is spiked with mysterious additives like taurine and glucuronolactone. And at $2 for an 8.3-ounce can, Red Bull's retail price is at least double what you'd pay for a 12-ounce can of Coke. But it does pack some energy. Red Bull, with 80 milligrams of caffeine, has more than double the dose found in the larger Coke serving, and it has 110 calories per serving versus Coke's 140.

Consumers downed 1.9 billion cans of Mateschitz's potion last year, generating just about $2 billion in revenue. By our reckoning Mateschitz's 49% share of the business is worth $2 billion.

Mateschitz, 60, typifies a new class of billionaires who got rich not by inventing a new product but by selling an ordinary one inventively. Donald Trump gets a premium for his Manhattan apartments because he has propagated the notion that a Trump building is superior to comparable property across the street. Sidney Frank made billions by selling Grey Goose vodka, nearly indistinguishable from bottom-shelf brands, at a rich price.

"When we first started, we said there is no existing market for Red Bull," Mateschitz recalls, in a thick Austrian accent. "But Red Bull will create it. And this is what finally became true."

Since introducing Red Bull in 1987, Mateschitz has invested heavily in building the brand. Last year he spent $600 million, or 30% of revenue, on marketing. (Coca-Cola spends 9%.) But unlike rivals who pay millions of dollars for superstars like Britney Spears, Mateschitz relies on cheaper talent: hip youngsters, students and a legion of fringe athletes. Red Bull sponsors some 500 athletes around the world, the type who will surf in Nova Scotia in January or jump out of a plane to "fly" across the English Channel. Every year the company stages dozens of extreme sporting events, like the climbing of iced-down silos in Iowa or kite sailing in Hawaii, as well as cultural events like break-dancing contests and rock music jam sessions. Then there is Hangar-7, an eye-popping structure of glass and steel that Mateschitz erected next to the airport in Salzburg, Austria. The building serves as a chic eatery for club crawlers and provides shelter for the Flying Bulls, a fleet of 15 show planes that appear at air shows around the world. Mateschitz's latest indulgence: the purchase of a Formula One racing team, an extravagance that will absorb $100 million a year to keep on the track while generating only $70 million in revenue.

All these activities are geared to one objective: to expand Red Bull's presence amid a deluge of new energy drinks being introduced by upstarts and beverage behemoths like Pepsi and Coke.

So far the results have been spectacular: In some countries Red Bull commands an 80% market share. In the U.S., where Red Bull enjoys a 47% share of the energy drink market, sales are growing annually at a 40% clip. Last year it sold 700 million cans in the U.S.; this year it hopes to sell 1 billion.

Impressive results for any go-getter, but even Mateschitz would admit he didn't exactly grab his Red Bull fortune by the horns. Raised by two primary-school-teacher parents who separated when he was very young, the convivial Mateschitz took ten years to get through college. "Life as a student is enjoyable," he muses, during a rare interview at Hangar-7. After graduating with a marketing degree from the University of Commerce in Vienna at the age of 28, Mateschitz worked various marketing jobs, including stints at Unilever and Germany's Jacobs Coffee. In 1979 he became the international marketing director for Germany's Blendax (later acquired by Procter & Gamble), where he pushed products like toothpaste, skin creams and shampoo.

It was a job that took him all over the world. In Thailand he discovered the benefits of a syrupy tonic drink sold in pharmacies as a revitalizing agent. After the long flights from Europe to Bangkok, Mateschitz would down the tonic over ice. His jet lag all but disappeared. He decided to study up on the market. "I realized that these little syrups developed in Japan did extremely well all over Asia," he recalls.

By happenstance, a Blendax licensee in Thailand named Chaleo Yoovidhya also owned a tonic drink company. Mateschitz floated the notion of introducing a tonic drink in the West. Yoovidhya loved the idea. In 1984 Mateschitz quit his job to partner with Yoovidhya. Each invested $500,000 of savings and took a 49% stake in the fledgling outfit. They gave the remaining 2% to Yoovidhya's son Chalerm, but it was agreed that Mateschitz would run the company. "