Santina Da Cruz • Andrew Kinn • Preston McClellan • Shauna Smith • Julianne Smith
Marketing Challenge Attack the caffeinated beverage competition by creating avid college-age consumers around the NCAA tournament and its surrounding events. • How can Red Bull position its brand alongside the NCAA brand without becoming an official sponsor? (Coke would not allow them to become an official sponsor because of the competition). • Can Red Bull have 50 percent of fans believe that it was the official partner of the NCAA tournament?
Communication Purpose:
Position Red Bull as the unofficial beverage partner of the NCAA. We want consumers of caffeinated beverages to leave Bracket Towns believing that Red Bull, and not Coca-Cola, is the official partner of the NCAA tournament. In order to measure the effectiveness of our campaign, we will conduct exit surveys with our target demographic to determine who they believed was the official beverage partner of the NCAA. Our goal is to have 50% of fans believing Red Bull was the official partner of the NCAA tournament.
Target Audience
Energy drinkers are college-aged students. 62 percent are white. 62 percent are also male. 47.7 percent of them are unemployed. A large percentage of them (nearly 80 percent) tried their first energy drink either in high school or early college. In this demographic, Red Bull makes up 42 percent of the market share, while Monster is a close second with 37 percent. 39 percent of all college-aged students have tried an energy drink in the last month. Hyped Henry and Enthusiastic Eric are white, 21-year old college students devoted to their institutions intercollegiate athletic teams. They are employed part-time, but they mostly focused on school. They eat, drink, and sleep their team. They are in the student section at every game screaming and yelling their team to victory. They identify themselves as extensions of the team. When the team travels they travel with them and support them through the NCAA tournament. When their team makes the NCAA tournament, just like the players, they are going to the game because they have worked so hard for this. They like drinking beverages high in caffeine before attending sporting events (and before going out) in order to jacked for moment.
Key Insight
College students travel to the NCAA March Madness games to support their team and celebrate their success. They get to the cities where games are located and are looking for a good time. They want to be as energetic and passionate as possible for their school’s game. They stay up late celebrating victories. They want to make the most of their trip and often turn to caffeine for energy. - Energy drinkers want to stay awake and alert as long as possible.
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Santina Da Cruz • Andrew Kinn • Preston McClellan • Shauna Smith • Julianne Smith
Creative Idea Use ambush marketing promote around Red Bull around the NCAA Tournament. Explanation: As explained in the communication purpose, Red Bull will attempt to position itself alongside the NCAA brand without becoming an official partner, much like Sprint did with the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Red Bull will do this by utilizing already in-place student and university interns as well as its night life ambassadors. These people will use their marketing skills to along with the “Wings for Winners” print ad campaign. This ties into our key insight because fans in our demographic will be out at NCAA related events wanting to stay awake and as alert as possible.
Supporting Points College aged consumers use energy drinks in social settings to stay up late and for alcoholic beverage mixers. • College age students we surveyed like to watch college basketball. • College age consumers are high energy and like to have a good time. • Bracket towns create a fun and exciting atmosphere for college basketball fans Locations for games are: First Four-Dayton, Second/Third Rounds-Buffalo NY, Milwaukee, Wis., Orlando, Fla., Spokane, Wash., Raleigh, N.C., San Antonio, Texas, San Diego, Cal., St. Louis, Mis., West Regional-Anahim, Cal., South Regional-Memphis, Tenn., Midwest Regional-Indianapolis, Ind., East Regional-New York, NY., Final Four- Arlington, Texas cover a large proportion of the United States that it would be good for Red Bull to get outreach in all these areas.
Brand Character Red Bull is
ACTIVE.
Red Bull is
REBELLIOUS.
Red Bull is
WIRED.
Red Bull is
UNRESTRAINED.
Red Bull is
GREGARIOUS.
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Santina Da Cruz • Andrew Kinn • Preston McClellan • Shauna Smith • Julianne Smith
Execution Considerations - Billboards around town with the “Wings for Winners” campaign - Billboards with the “Red Bull Gives you Rides” campaign - Special version of the Red Bull can that contains a basketball instead of the yellow dot in its logo - Tag: Wings for Winners - Have RedBull.com set up a special “Wings for Winners” page - The cans will have a QR code that will link to this page - Hashtag #WingsforWinners - Tweet out locations of the “Red Bull Gives You Rides” - Use the client’s color and logo scheme - Action: The call to action will be presented in each tweet or on the print materials that will encourage people to attend various Bracket Town related events. - Action: The Red Bull Twitter handle will appear print on each ad in order to encourage people to visit the Twitter page.
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