For those of you that saw my teaser-article last month, you know that I recently travelled to Quebec City to cover a truly unique sporting event known as Red Bull Crashed Ice.

Track Side

It’s an incredible sport, born to the marketing geniuses at Red Bull almost a decade ago, to help promote the Red Bull brand.  And promote they have.  This year’s event drew over 90,000 spectators, crammed into the small streets of Old Quebec in freezing weather all cheering their favourite thrill-seekers on.  Red Bull Crashed Ice also took the prime time slot on TSN on a Saturday night competing head to head with the NHL All Stars Skills Competition.

If you’ve never heard of Red Bull Crashed Ice you’re likely not alone, but as the sport builds momentum it will be hard to miss this extreme display of athleticism and bravado. A mix of skier cross, skeleton and hockey sprinkled heavily with fearlessness, it’s no wonder where the sport got its name.  Set on a icy track 550m long, heats of four competitors take to the ice, crashing down plummeting hills, around hair pin turns, over barrel jumps and against each other in a the race to the finish line.

We took our post at the finish line, set up along side media heavyweights like TSN and CTV.  I was a little surprised that Red Bull accepted our request to cover the event, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been.  It is a testament to the type of promotion they are looking for.  For Red Bull, this sport is a multi-million dollar marketing campaign rallying thrill seekers abound but the trick is to appear un-commercial. Grassroots, word-of-mouth, viral advertising is perhaps the most effective because it’s not advertising at all and it’s certainly un-commercial.

It’s really a sign of the times and how information is more available than ever before.  Blurring the boundaries of journalism and media are bloggers and independent reporters not influenced by their house alliance.  Why get information from traditional mediums, often biased to their highest bidders when you can get unbiased, organic accounts of events.  Perhaps that’s why you read RESQbug – perhaps that’s why you’ll pass this link along and take back control of the content you consume.

Game On!

When I set out to cover this event, it was to capture and report on how new sport or product is marketed these days, but even I’m surprised by what a change in strategy there has been.  Gone are the days of obvious advertising mediums, top-down marketing campaigns and celebrity endorsement.  This wasn’t about bombarding me with information about the sport or pushing me to drink Red Bull.  The key to this strategy was to grow a movement from the bottom up; giving it away for free in exchange for the kind of interaction you can’t buy with advertising.  Red Bull Crashed Ice invites you to get involved in every way one can – as an athlete, as a spectator and as media.  This article is perhaps a perfect example of that involvement.  It draws people out of a passive experience into an active one.

Some key strategies we saw successfully applied during this event that you could consider for your own brand or product include making the experience interactive and low cost.

For Red Bull Crashed Ice, the event is free and accessible to spectators.  However, free events are not always enough, even in tough economic times like these.  There still needs to be real value in what you’re giving away or people won’t bother joining in.  The value in Red Bull Crashed Ice was the opportunity to see outrageous athleticism up close and personal.  The event was also successfully interactive, bringing people of all ages together to cheer on their favourite athletes and commiserate in the freezing cold.  Post-event parties were held, open to the public, inviting spectators to get even more involved and meet the athletes in person.  Try that at a Superbowl or Stanley Cup game – no, I don’t think so.

Do you have a brand or product you want to market? Want to hear more about the event itself or how to get involved next year? Drop me an email anytime.

Cheers,

e.