I had high anxiety just watching Felix Baumgartner jump from the edge of the earth, free falling through the air for over 4 minutes, I can only image what his family, the Red Bull crew, and Mission Control must have felt. But I couldn’t turn away, and neither could 8 million other people, who all watched live on Red Bull’s Youtube channel as Felix rose 24 miles into the sky in a helium balloon, and then proceeded to jump.
So many things could have gone wrong, but everything seemed to go right and he broke numerous records in the process As he parachuted to the ground, he fell to his knees and pumped his fists in the air. This one jump, broke so many different records, both digital and non-digital, and he will be in the history books forever. My parents generation has Neil Armstrong. And now my generation has Felix Baumgartner.
Red Bull sponsored the jump, and their logo was on everything little thing possible. From the capsule that brought him up to space, to the shirts that his family, and everyone in mission control wore. There was no way you wouldn’t have known that Red Bull was a part of this. This was a very risky activity (for lack of a better word) for them to sponsor. What if something did go wrong? What if while 8 million people were watching on their youtube channel, his space suit ripped apart and he died, or was severly injured? Red Bull took a huge risk with this, and fortunately for them it paid off. One thing we can learn from this, is that sometimes the risk is worth the reward.
Red Bull’s whole brand is about risk taking, and supporting people who do extreme things, and I guess its go big or go home for them! And they sure did go big. This campaign, and brand awareness had everyone talking yesterday for the right reasons. But I cant help but wonder what it would have done for the brand if something horrible went wrong. It doesn’t seem like that could be something they could recover from, but I supposed we’ll never know that now. This is undoubtly a successful, yet extreme marketing campaign, but in the end it worked out for them, for Felix and for the world.
Red Bull’s name will forever be assicatoed with Felix and this historic jump, in all of the records books. So, exactly what records did Fearless Felix break?
- The highest jump from a platform (128,100 feet)
- The longest distance free fall (119,846 feet)
- The maximum vertical velocity (833.9 mph or Mach 1.24) – this means that he was the first human being, not in an aircraft, to break the sound barrier (yikes!)
- And last but not last, the record for live stream with the most concurrent viewers ever on Youtube.
Red Bull is known for their extreme marketing campaigns, but this one takes the cake. Watch Felix (and Red Bull) break the sound barrier below. Its a pretty incredible video to watch.
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