Why Red Bull Ignores Its Advertising Agency?

Written by Igor Beuker on February 23rd, 2010 | 10 comments

Probably we all know the Red Bull TV commercials, with the ever happy ending and wings. The campaign has been broadcasted for 23 years in 160 countries. For the new campaign Red Bull ignores its advertising agency, now all consumers in The Netherlands can think along.

And that’s about time. Because to me, Red Bull has been a core identity brand for many years. I loved their cool events and sponsorships. But the never ending boring series of TV commercials made me change my mind. I started to dislike the Red Bull brand due to their TV ads.

Per 1 March 2010 every Dutch consumer with a creative mind can send his script to Red Bull Decide The Story. User created scripts must fit the mandatory format, in which the animated “anchor” cartoon will stay the main character. The TV spot must be 15 seconds max.

The best rated scripts will be produced into a TV ad and will be aired on TV. The winning script writers will be involved in the production of the spot.

I do hope to see some fun scripts. And really hope to see a refreshed Red Bull brand. Because they will need a cosmic collission to find all the available GRP’s on this planet that will make me a Red Bull fan again. How do you like the current Red Bull TV commercials?

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10 Comments

• Alexandre Brito says:

  February 24, 2010 at 18:52

  At the moment, it’s not just redbull that is ‘using’ their consumers creativity to come with new ideas for ads.

  My question is: Will this trend of asking users for new ideas be the standard in advertising? Going one step further this really makes sense: in this way users are already exposed to the brand even before the advertising campaign is ready. Looks good to me.

  Reply
• Igor Beuker says:

  February 24, 2010 at 21:10

  Hi Alexandre,

  It might be a trend, not hype. The book: wisdom of crowds (james surowiecki) shows how smart and engaged consumers can be.

  This platform (Zooppa) is about the wisdom of creative people: http://zooppa.com/

  Maybe some of the famous advertising agencies will going to be disintermediated by initiaves like this?

  Cheers

  Igor

  Reply
• Paul says:

  February 24, 2010 at 22:40

  Red Bull is also using the creative network of Boomerang Create. Boomerang Create is a similar platform like Zooppa.

  http://www.boomerang.nl/nieuws/prijzenpot-red-bull-verdubbeld/

  Reply
• Igor Beuker says:

  February 24, 2010 at 22:46

  @ Paul

  So if this will become a trend, traditional ad agencies must have started to look for alternative business models than “creating expensive tv ads” only?

  Maybe ad agencies need to seek for “money-making” products, if services do not pay their bills any longer?

  Looks like the internet is a disruptive force again..

  Cheers

  Igor

  Reply
• Alexandre Brito says:

  February 25, 2010 at 14:03

  @ Igor

  Thank you for the book reference and for the community. I’ll indeed take a look at it.

  If you never heard about it bootb(http://www.bootb.com/en/) is an online marketplace for creative services. And regarding how to engage consumers you should take a look in Edward Boches’s blog (http://edwardboches.com/), an expert in the field, responsible for example for brandbowl’10 so buzzed in the social media.

  It’s always interesting to discuss ideas with people that share the same enthusiasm about the same subjects.

  Reply
• rick coleman says:

  October 19, 2010 at 17:32

  I jointly won this competition in England. Myself and the other ‘winner’ spent the day at Red Bull’s agency honing our scripts and were promised to attend the premier of our ads etc etc. Nothing came of it. Emails were not replied to and I never heard from them again. However two ads did appear along the lines of our scripts. My fellow competitor’s subject was Shaekespear and mine Sir Isaac Newton. To this day I have no idea why things didn’t progress as they were promised but I certainly feel used to say the least.

  Rick

  Reply
  • Igor Beuker says:

    October 21, 2010 at 15:48

    Hi Rick

    Thank you for your reply. I am at least shocked about your story… I think it’s fair that we give Red Bull (or its agency) an opportunity to explain their part of the story here too.. A brand is created by it’s experience, not only by the promises it makes..

    Look forward to hear from Red Bull..

    Cheers

    Reply
• Carli says:

  May 19, 2011 at 18:12

  You’re the one with the brains here. I’m wahtncig for your posts.

  Reply
• Igor Beuker says:

  June 3, 2011 at 09:22

  Thanks Carli. Hope to see you back!

  Reply
• Advertising says:

  December 1, 2011 at 01:22

  Advertising…

  [...]Red Bull Ignores Advertising Agency? -[...]…

  Reply