Red Bull Launches India’s 1st #RedBullFlugTag, Creating Strong Digital Gravity Through An Effective Online Offline Campaign

Red Bull has been known to host self-ironic events which have been very well received in the past, like The Red Bull Soapbox Race in December 2012. This year, Red Bull takes the action to a whole new level with India’s 1^st Red Bull Flugtag in Bengaluru on 28^th September 2014.

India’s 1^st Red Bull Flugtag is the 502^nd such event in the world which is bound to bring out the crazy in every participant! When it comes to flying a Red Bull Flugtag craft, it all comes down to the power of the human spirit and sheer manpower. Each participating team comprises of four individuals who design, build and launch their home-made ‘craft’ off a ramp. The idea is to fly as far as possible, wings or not, before you crash with a splash into the water below. Teams are judged on 3 parameters: How far their craft flies, the level of creativity in their craft and costume design and their showmanship during the pre-flight ritual. If the Red Bull Soapbox Race held in Mumbai in 2012 is anything to go by, we could look at 40-50 crafts taking off on the final day. Users can register to participate from their micro-site.

India’s 1^st Red Bull Flugtag is a free-to-attend public event to be held at Sankey Tank, a manmade lake in the suburbs of Bengaluru.

Red Bull has mapped out a variety of some rather interesting activities across social media platforms, through microsites, Youtube videos and a fun application process.

Execution

The brand unveiled its microsite 'Flugtag.redbull.in' , and has populated it with a video series by All India Bakchod, a fictitious institution called the School of Indian Physics, an online game and the application form.

The 1^st phase of registration to the event involves filling up an ‘Admission Form’ for the School of Indian Physics which also invites the views of the applicants on some bizarre questions. Once admission is confirmed, the team will receive a kit containing two Red Bull cans, design papers, build guidelines and a flight manual. These can be used to submit your design for the craft.

The fact that this entire online process of applying has something tangible to look forward to will get the user extremely excited. It’s also a great way to plug in additional campaign communication and brand products into the user-engagement.

The School of Indian Physics, which has a separate section on the website, is portrayed as an unconventional institution established to help the world defy the laws of physics in a world where gravity is optional. Apart from a Motto and Mission Statement, the institute also has an Alumni page, a Surprise Test section and a Library that archives all digital communication about the campaign. The content on this section is in line with the entire campaign of being crazy and at your creative best.

The section is a collection of quirky creative and infographics.

Another interesting part of the microsite is the Red Bull Flugtag Game. Apart from the Flappy-Bird-style experience, the highest scorer on this game also gets to travel to Bengaluru for India’s 1^st Red Bull Flugtag and fly an actual craft to kick off the event. Score sharing on social media has been well integrated too!

On the registration front, once shortlisted, a team can start building their craft (at their own expense) whereas Red Bull will provide complete support in terms of safety.

Experts from Red Bull will closely work with the teams to guide them. The safety aspect extends to the day of the event with a fully equipped medical team on standby.

The buzz on Twitter is quite evident, both for the event and for the game.

Video as a Promotional Tool

Red Bull has created several videos in association with All India Bakchod (AIB), a team of standup comedians who also have a Youtube channel to their name. 5 videos have been released on the campaign website and we hear a few more will be added to the list in the coming weeks. These videos have a thematic approach and are dubbed as the Chronicles of Pintu, the story of a young man who dreamed of flying.

Using videos as a part of an integrated campaign has become crucial for brands. Red Bull smartly used hilarious videos which tend to go viral in an attempt to promote the campaign on Youtube. Online videos are fast becoming a significant means for people to gratify their entertainment needs. For a brand, to tap into this potential can prove to be excessively rewarding.

A good number of people have started conversations about the video on Twitter.

Along with twitter users, AIB team members are also tweeting about the event, reaching out to a huge community.

The AIB partnership also extends on ground, where Rohan Joshi, Tanmay Bhat, G. Khamba and Ashish Shakya will be the official hosts for the event in Bangalore. Leading up to the event, we’re told there’s a slew of fun web+social content coming.

Creativity at its peak

Creating exciting content, a whole new series of AIB videos, choosing a never-been-played-before sport in India, the application process and all the activities lined up in the coming months help differentiate this campaign, unlike any other done in the past. In fact every element has been carefully picked to elevate the creative levels of this integrated campaign approach.

The participating process itself is so creative that it instantly draws the user’s attention.

The brand also plans to roll out profile pages of individual teams once they are announced, giving users a chance to interact with them. This platform will allow users to rate each craft on the basis of airworthiness. What’s in it for the user? Besides the rating mechanism, users can also predict the actual distance each craft will fly on the day of the event and look forward to some exciting rewards if their guess holds true!

The brand has planned to launch several hashtags in the coming weeks to keep their Twitter followers delighted and surprise them with fun gratifications as well. We are looking forward to how this campaign will shape up. If you want to sign up for the activity you can do so from here.

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