Red Bull Invests $65M On Space Jump As More Than 8 Million Watch On YouTube

Sunday's Red Bull Stratos event, which featured Felix Baumgartner's jump from more than 24 miles, "was a success and will positively impact Red Bull's brand value," according to Christof Kerkmann of HANDELSBLATT. Austrian media outlets reported that Red Bull invested more than €50M ($64.8M) in the event. Red Bull not only staged the event but also used its production company Red Bull Media House and its TV channel ServusTV to distribute its images to other media outlets. In addition, YouTube's live stream of the event "recorded more 340 million site views before the actual jump." Red Bull "dominated German TV screens on Sunday." Sunday morning, a total of 3.52 million people watched Red Bull's first and second-place finish at the Korean F1 Grand Prix, which started at 8am CEST. Baumgartner's record-breaking jump attracted even more impressive numbers. German news channel N-TV set a new ratings record with 6.59 million viewers or a 19.4% market share between 8:10-8:15pm when Baumgartner landed his jump. Overall, N-TV attracted 2.24 million viewers for a 8.8% share for its four-hour broadcast of the event. YouTube also set a new record with more than 8 million viewers simultaneously watching the event. YouTube's previous record of 500,000 was set during the London Olympics. (HANDELSBLATT, 10/15).

ONLINE FRENZY: The London GUARDIAN's Owen Gibson wrote sponsorship experts said on Monday that the online frenzy around Baumgartner's leap served to highlight trends that "had been emerging for some time." Sponsors "moved away from traditional models" of sponsorship and toward their own customized spectaculars. Sponsorship agency Synergy CEO Tim Crow said, "The biggest trend in the last 10 years, and the social Internet side of things has merely accelerated it, is that creating your own content has absolutely moved to the top of the agenda. The hackneyed old tickets, hospitality and perimeter boarding model is being left behind." Major brands "have been talking for years about becoming content producers rather than simply paying media and rights owners to advertise or slap their logos on shirts and hoardings." None have "taken it as seriously as Red Bull" (GUARDIAN, 10/15). MARKETING MAGAZINE's Sarah Shearman wrote that according to a Twitter spokesperson, "there has been approximately 3.1 million tweets sent relating to the event" (MARKETINGMAGAZINE.co.uk, 10/15).