The man behind one of the world’s most recognisable brands, Red Bull, has taken his innovative and sometimes controversial sports marketing strategy to new levels of achievement and visibility.
Mateschitz’s self-belief and eye for an opportunity, which has transformed an obscure Thai energy drink into a global market leader, has been replicated in the bold strokes of his sports event and team ownership strategy.
As Simon Chadwick of Coventry University’s Centre for the International Business of Sport, observes: “Whilst other entrepreneurs have similarly developed successful businesses, and other sports owners and innovators have perhaps achieved greater success within the sporting realm, few companies rival Red Bull’s innovation and perseverance in utilising sport as a key driver of business and extension of the core brand. Ultimately, the success of Mateschitz as a sports entrepreneur is in many ways unparalleled.”
Starting with the ownership of innovative Red Bull-created events like The Flugtag airshow and Red Bull Air Race, Mateschitz has moved into mainstream sports properties, with 2010 Formula One champions Red Bull Racing, its “rookie team” Scuderia Toro Rosso and NASCAR’s Team Red Bull leading the way.
Under the Red Bull name, Mateschitz’s international sporting empire also includes ownership of EC Red Bull Salzburg (Erste Bank Hockey League, Austria), FC Red Bull Salzburg (Austrian Bundesliga), New York Red Bulls (Major League Soccer), Red Bull Brasil FC (Brazilian second division), and lower-league German football club SSV Markranstädt, renamed as RB Leipzig in 2009.
From an estimated $300m per year spend on action sport events and athletes in the early part of the millennium, Mateschitz has invested more than $675m in five years on the Red Bull Formula One team alone, a decision which has been rewarded by this year’s Constructors’ and Driver’s Championship double in a sport traditionally dominated by big spending teams like McLaren, Ferrari and Williams.
Not that Mateschitz will be entirely happy with this outcome. Earlier this year he said that: “expecting anything less [than the 2010 Formula One title for one of his drivers] would be absurd”. But then Red Bull’s involvement in sport is about winning a wider game, one which sees a reported 30 to 40 per cent of sales revenue returned to its marketing operations. Mateschitz, of course, has his critics.
He is controversial because he places the Red Bull brand before the sporting identity of the teams he acquires: the Red Bull name, for example, is tagged to his sports teams (RB Leipzig excepted) who invariably play in Red Bull-named arenas and stadia - one of the reasons why Mateschitz may be reluctant to a take up a major sports brand like Manchester United or the New York Yankees, which simply could not be tampered with.
Indeed, in comparison with some of the famous names on these adjoining pages, Mateschitz himself is a comparative unknown, but as Chadwick explains this too serves the Red Bull brand: “Unlike many of his contemporaries, Mateschitz has managed to remain almost an unknown figure behind the Red Bull brand; Branson and Gates, by contrast, have become in many ways the faces of their respective Virgin and Microsoft brands. Mateschitz, though, prefers to remain behind the scenes, encouraging greater attention on the brand and the properties themselves, a strategy which to date has paid dividends.”
Yet there can be little doubt, says Chadwick, of Mateschitz’s place amongst sports elite, alongside more famous names like Phil Knight, Adi Dassler and Mark McCormack: “Whilst it remains to be seen what future endeavours and extensions Mateschitz and Red Bull have planned, the foundations laid within youth culture and sport should no doubt ensure that the company’s market dominance and presence in sport will continue.”
For the full Top 20 list, please see the latest issue of SportBusiness International out December 1.
