Red Bull's five all-time greatest marketing stunts

With Red Bull currently basking in a supersonic glow due to yet another death defying, social-media hyping, and more importantly image-enhancing publicity stunt. We thought we'd take a look at five brilliant marketing strategies from the energy-drinks maker and see what inspiration small businesses can gleam from them.

Red Bull value rises faster than the speed of sound

On Sunday, Felix Baumgartner plunged 24 miles from space to earth and became the first human to break the sound barrier without a machine. Luckily, a Red Bull logo requires the power of sight, not sound and it was clear to see that Red Bull were the brains behind this operation. They funded the whole shabang, from the micro site, to the research, to the £43,600 balloon that transported Baumgartner into the stratosphere and Red Bull into conversations all over the world.

The expedition created huge engagement across social media channels and saw eight million people tune in to watch the flying Austrian's exploits. While we don't know how much the whole mission cost, advertising executives are predicting the exposure to be worth £10m in the UK and as much as £100m worldwide. Which is massive when you compare that a 2 minute advert on Saturday night's X-factor would cost £1m alone.

Spend time with your audience

The Red Bull Bulletin is the company's own publication. It showcases all of its stunts from triple somersaulting cliff divers to bands and DJ's who are surfing the top of the wave in each of their scenes. The magazine has built an engaged audience so thirsty for Red Bull news that it's developed from an industry PR tool, to a full publication on sale alongside independent and respected magazines.

The energy drink has taken this route instead of advertising in other magazines as it's enabled it to build their own fans and allows the brand to spend more time with their reader.

Red Bull gives you wings, literally

Red Bull Flugtag is one of the company's most popular events. It challenges the brave/nuts to design, build and pilot home-made flying machines off a 30ft high flight deck. Despite some of these creations looking like they have as much chance of flying as a Rhino in a helicopter hat, these events enable consumers to get involved with the brand and live up to the 'Red Bull gives you wings' strapline.  Almost 100 of Flugtag days have taken place across the globe attracting up to 300,000 spectators for each event. That's more spectators than could fit into Olympic Stadium, Wembley and the O2 put together.

Rock out with Red Bull

The Red Bull Music Academy is a series of music workshops and festivals. It's a platform for the company  to invite potential customers to sell-out gigs and venues, giving them access to the most sought after artists across the world.  These gigs are another chance for Red Bull to put on fun nights for people and associate their brand with these great times. No doubt they also shift a ton of Red Bull to keep the gig goers cool too.

Come on you Red Buuuuuullllllls!

Red Bull owns sports teams. There is the F1 racing team fronted by Sebastien Vettell and there's the New York Red Bulls challenging David Beckham's LA Galaxy to be crowned the greatest soccer team in the US.

People support these teams as passionately as someone on the Kop at Anfield would support Liverpool. It's creating an association that means not only are these people probably more likely to buy a can of Red Bull, they are fans of the company. It underlines the idea of powering enhanced energy in a way that feels exciting, glamorous and shared with an audience. People fill these stadiums and are pumped with the feeling of being energised and excited together, under the banner of Red Bull.