Apparently, Red Bull really does give you wings.
At least it certainly seemed that way Sunday when Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner inched out of his capsule from 128,100 feet high in the sky and began a record-setting 24-mile fall back to Earth.
It was a historic moment for Baumgartner, who reached record-setting speeds of 833.9 mph, breaking the speed of sound in the process. It was also a monumental moment for Red Bull, the energy drink company that sponsored the event watched by nearly eight million worldwide.
A Forbes article quoted a marketing exec who said that Red Bull Stratos was one of the greatest marketing stunts of all time. The feat was all over news outlets across the world and even Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, whose team had just won a crucial game over New England, took a few minutes to acknowledge Baumgartner in his postgame comments.
There are several companies in the Seattle region with big plans for space ventures, from Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch to Planetary Resources to Blue Origin, the often-secretive commercial space venture started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
There’s a lot to be learned from Red Bull’s marketing stunt for companies looking to build their brand in big ways, though riding a balloon to the edge of outer space and jumping back to Earth might be a little unreasonable for most.
