RED BULL / KLUGE
20 November 2012
After Stratos, energy drink reminds people how it became king of branded content with adrenaline-fuelled online video
- Brand
- Red Bull
- Media Type
- Online
- Viral
- Product Category
- Alcoholic Drinks
- Non-Alcoholic Drinks
- Country
- USA
- Source
- News
- Agency
- Syyn Labs / Los Angeles
- Tags
- viral
- stunt
- online
- online video
Red Bull has created a Rube Goldberg style machine, powered by 11 of the brand's best known associated athletes. The four-minute video (see above), entitled The Red Bull Kluge, is a continuous sequence of stunts connected to one and other.
The concept was masterminded by Syyn Labs, a Los-Angeles-based creative collective best known for creating This Too Shall Pass - a music video for Ok Go that has logged 38 million YouTube views to date.
The film starts with pro skydiver Sean Maccormac leaping from a Red Bull helicopter. When he lands on a bull's-eye, a sequence begins that sees Joey Brezinski skateboarding, Rickie Fowler chipping a golf ball into a hole, Danny Macaskill performing tricks with a BMX, and so on.
The video has been seeded on YouTube, where is has received 4.5 million views in five days. A separate microsite provides background information on the stunt, including 'the making of' clips and additional camera angles. The website also explains the name: 'Kluge: A witty, yet inelegant solution that succeeds in performing a particular task.'
Contagious Insight
We've become familiar with brands using this captivating style of video, both in TV and online. Honda famously launched the Accord with a Rube Goldberg machine, and Google created a game around the concept in its Nexus Contraptions campaign. However, whilst the idea may have been tried-and-tested successfully in the past, it doesn't detract from the excitement of Kluge. It's highly entertaining, and is racking up an impressive view count (even if they could have pushed these world class athletes a little further in the complexity of the stunts?).
At Contagious, we were particularly interested in the timing and content of this video. It was always going to be a hard act to follow Felix Baumgartner - the daredevil skydiver who fell from space and broke the speed of sound in the process. It's interesting, though, that after the craziness of Stratos, Red Bull has used Kluge to remind the world exactly how they got to the top: by supporting extraordinary athletes in adrenaline sports. The core Red Bull sports are all represented - BMX, Motocross, snowboarding, skydiving, skateboarding (and, ahem, golf) - and there are other reminders, such as the inclusion of a Red Bull Air Race-style miniature model plane.
The decision to release this video just a few weeks after Stratos is also important. The leap of faith from 120,000 feet, which was watched by 8 million people on YouTube, created a huge buzz around the brand. Having generated this excitement, though, it's crucial to keep the momentum going, and Kluge has done just that for Red Bull. Perhaps there is a lesson here for all brands - when organising huge, tent-pole events, remember to plan beyond this to capitalise on any potential increase in audience/interest.
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