Red Bull’s YouTube Strategy: Learning From The Best

Recently, we’ve made a video on our YouTube channel explaining the marketing strategy of Red Bull. We’ve broken down the success story in detail starting from the very beginning to the current marketing activities of an energy drink. You can check it out here:However, we’ve received a lot of requests from viewers to go deeper in analyzing Red Bull’s YouTube strategy. That’s what we are going to do today in this article.

About Red Bull

Red Bull has the highest market share of any energy drink in the world, with approximate revenue of 6.1 billion euro in the year 2018.Although the brand originated in Austria, the very idea that inspired it came from far Thailand! Dietrich Mateschitz, a toothpaste salesman at the time, was traveling in Thailand, where he heard about an “energy tonic” that supposedly kept people alert and awake.So, he tested the idea and the ingredients for three years, before finally Red Bull was launched in 1987, in Austria. Even though there was no demand in the market because the product did not exist, they persevered.So, what did the founders do to dominate the market for more than 30 years?

Red Bull’s marketing strategy

Red Bull’s strategy is not focused on promoting the energy drink but instead creating a brand that embodies a distinct lifestyle and audience.

“In terms of attracting new customers and enhancing consumer loyalty, Red Bull has a more effective branding campaign than Coke or Pepsi”Nancy F. Koehn, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School

How do they create this brand image?Red Bull is using a number of marketing strategies including event sponsorships, influencer, and content marketing.One pattern that can be identified throughout all marketing channels is an emphasis on videos. Through video content, they tell stories that entice their audience and transmit a high-energy aesthetic of their brand. Video content can be found on all social media channels of Red Bull:

Instagram
TikTok
Twitter
YouTube

As the biggest brand channel on YouTube, Red Bull has almost 10m subscribers for the main channel and many more for supplementary channels. The channel grew this strong mainly with YouTube videos featuring exciting sports with quality content. Thus, their video marketing strategy definitely deserves a closer look.

Red Bull YouTube channel: learn from the best

First, let’s understand the content marketing approaches that big global brands follow. Video content on YouTube should follow the same principles as all other types of branded content – no matter if it’s on Facebook, Instagram, or on your website. Global brands here follow three different approaches:

One YouTube Brand Hub
Brand Hub with Supplementary Channels
Brand Hub with Regional Channels

Channel strategy

Red Bull’s YouTube channel is a perfect example of a brand hub with supplementary channels.Red Bull has one “hub” channel in English with various content starting from Red Bull cartoons to various races and interviews with sports influencers.Yet Red Bull is aware that the interests of its target audience are diverse. That’s why they set up dedicated channels for bike fans, motorsports, winter sports, skateboarding but also dance and gaming. Each of them has massive subscriber counts and follows a content strategy that’s tailored to the interests of the target audience.Each and every channel stands out with the recognizable brand design, great channel architecture, and high-quality videos that convey the high-energy aesthetics of the brand.Now let’s break down Red Bull’s YouTube channel architecture.

Channel architecture

The home page provides relevant links to social media channels and their website, in case a viewer wants to engage more with the brand and its activities.

Red Bull Bike’s channel delivers one focused message with the help of a channel trailer and channel banner. Currently, it’s a new movie promotion.

User-centric playlists guide viewers through the main channel content.

In addition, what really makes the videos stand out is the use and structure of thumbnails. A great custom video thumbnail can attract viewers to click on it. As a result, well-thought-out thumbnails help your videos increase views and click-rate (CTR).

Red Bull is paying attention to video metadata: all descriptions follow the same pattern: short video summary and relevant links. Consistent and SEO-friendly video descriptions help your videos to rank better and thus, increase views. You can find the ultimate guide to YouTube SEO right here.

All videos have call-to-actions at the end: subscribe to the channel & link to playlists/other videos. The longer viewers stay on your channel – the more watch time you get. We also explained the importance of watch time in this video:

It’s clear that Red Bull Bike doesn’t use paid ads. Just look at the engagement! Views/likes ratio and comments show that these videos have gotten the viewers’ attention.

Red-Bull is also producing How-to searchable content. Let’s search for “How To Double Frontflip A Ski Jump” on Google. The first result is the Red Bull’s video!

Pro tip: if your How-to videos appear in the Video carousel on Google, it can help to boost your videos further.

Things that can be improved

Despite the amazing quality content of RedBull’s YouTube videos, there are still some things that can be improved from the SEO point of view, especially for the how-to videos. Here are some important tips for YouTube SEO marketing:a) Video descriptions should have a consistent pattern and include the keywords you want to rank for.

b) Videos should have customized subtitles! It gives more information for YouTube algorithms about the content of the video.

c) If you have a blog, embed videos there to increase the chances of ranking on Google.

I hope you enjoyed the article and got some good takeaways for your own YouTube channel! If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them in the comment section down below👇🏼 .