As Felix Baumgartner struggled to correct his spin at the start of his 128,100 ft descent to earth on Sunday, I couldn’t help thinking of the consequences of failure for Red Bull, his sponsor.
Mr Baumgartner’s feat was obviously extraordinary and compelling. It was a new frontier for him, and for YouTube (where 8m people watched the dive live), but despite strenuous efforts to identify some great scientific benefit of the stunt, it is a far greater leap for brand-marketers – and I worry where they will go next.
The Austrian’s sponsor is an introverted company with an extrovert energy drink brand and it has blasted out a niche in extreme sports, from Formula One to air races. Plenty of people pointed out on Twitter on Sunday that if Mr Baumgartner died, so would Red Bull’s slogan “Red Bull gives you wings”.
But Red Bull is not alone. Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson, who has racked up some high-risk airborne accomplishments himself, promised in the FT on Monday to go deeper as well as higher, with a Virgin Oceanic submarine.
Commercial success – combining high-adventure feats with a youthful online audience – will surely encourage other companies to contemplate backing even riskier exploits, testing the all-publicity-is-good-publicity maxim to the limit. Eventually, someone will perish – either taking part in such an adventure or, worse, imitating better-prepared brand ambassadors like Mr Baumgartner. For brands, this is, literally, a race to the bottom.
Mr Baumgartner’s feat was obviously extraordinary and compelling. It was a new frontier for him, and for YouTube (where 8m people watched the dive live), but despite strenuous efforts to identify some great scientific benefit of the stunt, it is a far greater leap for brand-marketers – and I worry where they will go next.
The Austrian’s sponsor is an introverted company with an extrovert energy drink brand and it has blasted out a niche in extreme sports, from Formula One to air races. Plenty of people pointed out on Twitter on Sunday that if Mr Baumgartner died, so would Red Bull’s slogan “Red Bull gives you wings”.
But Red Bull is not alone. Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson, who has racked up some high-risk airborne accomplishments himself, promised in the FT on Monday to go deeper as well as higher, with a Virgin Oceanic submarine.
Commercial success – combining high-adventure feats with a youthful online audience – will surely encourage other companies to contemplate backing even riskier exploits, testing the all-publicity-is-good-publicity maxim to the limit. Eventually, someone will perish – either taking part in such an adventure or, worse, imitating better-prepared brand ambassadors like Mr Baumgartner. For brands, this is, literally, a race to the bottom.
