Red Bull creates the world's fastest drone

Can we just take a moment to stand in awe of Red Bull.

This is a brand, that since the mid-198os, has consistently shown-up over the decades by just producing great content that delivers time-and-time-again. And they're relentless about it.

The premise for the whole thing, since the 80s, is darn simple...Red Bull gives you wiiings...and then they show us how.

Today the Red Bull YouTube channel has more than 14 million subscribers. The channel itself is currently hosting more than 6000 mini films and the most recent one has more than 15 million views. This is incredible.

In their latest film - a Dutch team of engineers creates the world's fastest flying drone to take never-seen-before, in-action shots of Max Verstappen driving his new Red Bull Racing F1 car around Silverstone. Everything about it is so neatly and annoyingly perfect.

As a brand Red Bull understand the importance of storytelling. Of pushing the brand narrative forward. Of creating notoriety that resonates with an audience. Their aim is reach, fame; and they achieve it so seemingly easily.

Red Bull invented the energy drink category, and to this day are the dominate market leader (holding more than 40% of the global market share). Here's the thing though, it's estimated that it costs Red Bull around 9 cents (US) to make a can of their drink (the only product that they sell) and they make a margin on that of around 20x the production cost.

In 2021 it is estimated that more than 84 billion energy drinks where consumed - most of them in the US, drank mainly by younger males (probably laced with vodka). In this category, brand drives sales as well as price, which is why Red Bull spend more than US$1 billion a year on sponsorships.

It's often erroneously assumed that advertising and brand building like this only keeps sales alive, but for Red Bull, their brand infamy allows them to charge a very high margin for their product, which makes the company some exceptional profits. The brand's relentless media machine is designed to defend their price point far more than it is intended to keep the tills ringing. You wouldn't exactly call this a luxury brand, but their tactics are very similar to how luxury creates outsized value.

That's probably why Red Bull GmbH is still a private company - they simply don't need investor money.

There used to be a bullshit saying that some people used to throw around that went something like: "Advertising is the tax you pay for having an average product." It might roll off the tongue nicely, but that ol' chestnut just isn't true. Here's a better one to use instead, courtesy of empirical fact: "Only average brands underspend on advertising, which is exactly why they stay average and underperforming."