Red Bull has Wings When it Comes to Mobile Apps

Mobile is quickly replacing desktops as the primary source for accessing information. 74 percent of Americans own smartphones, nearly two thirds of cell phone owners’ use their phones to go online, and more than one-third of users say it is their primary Internet device. For me personally, I rarely use my laptop for logging onto Facebook. The ease and convenience has made mobile marketing desirable for companies. Mobile marketing has given companies a new opportunity to reach their primary target market.

Red Bull is not only known for their energy drinks, but also their involvement with extreme sports. One of the advertisements we watched in class consisted of a man completing an “extreme” sky drive from space. This ad not only showed Red Bull’s association with extreme sports, but it also showed how innovative they are especially with mobile.

Facebook

Facebook isn’t about collecting “likes,” but about consumer engagement. They do an excellent job at getting their consumers involved. Red Bull uses their Facebook page thoroughly, and the vast majority of their posts are images and videos relevant to extreme sports and sponsored athletes. Red Bull isn’t just about selling an energy drink, but a lifestyle. I viewed Red Bull’s Facebook using the Facebook app on a smartphone. The app allows for the profiles to be easily accessible and is optimized for small screens. The Facebook app provides a standard format for the profiles and allows for easy navigation. There is no need to adjust the screen for legibility, which also means all the content fits onto the screen and it is unnecessary to scroll from side to side. The cover image of Red Bull’s Facebook profile is perfectly suited for mobile, showing someone participating in an extreme sport in artic conditions. Having clicked through links from their post, I was led to content on their website and video posts. The website content viewed from Facebook on a smartphone was created to be mobile friendly. Red Bull’s Facebook contains a drop down navigation menu, which makes for easy navigation. This menu is organized into multiple categories. This Facebook app provides users with the ability to “share” the content, copy or save the link, open the website through a web browser, or send the link to a friend on Facebook.

Twitter

As an international brand, Red Bull has hundreds of Twitter feeds dedicated to different events and projects all over the world. The official Red Bull account has 1.8 million followers and tweets links to images, videos, and stories of manyextreme athletes and adventurers. Having looked at their Twitter account on a smartphone, the header image seems to be suitable for mobile devices. The image is clear and proportionate. The cover photo consists of a man attempting a trick on a motor cross vehicle. Red Bull’s images are high resolution and optimized for the small screens of mobile devices. Although their images are suited for small screens, it is a good thing that mobile devices allow for viewers to zoom in on images because, unlike Facebook, it is a little bit more difficult to see.

Many of Red Bull’s tweets contain links that direct viewers to different content to their website and blog. Using a mobile device, I looked at a recent post and was directed to their website. The website view of this link from a smartphone is very accessible, appearing to be specifically formatted for mobile. While some websites contain a main navigation menu along the top of the site, Red Bull’s mobile website view allows you to access their navigation menu through a drop down window. Viewers are able to click and view other content on the website through the drop down window.

As stated previously, visual content dominates Red Bull’s social media platforms, but before they post these amazing images they should consider how these images will appear in-stream on both computer screens and mobile devices. Because Twitter automatically crops images to be confined in a certain pixel dimension space, some of the pictures Red Bull posts do not display at a large enough size. Although some of their images are small, their content on both Facebook and Twitter, appeared to be in moderation. From their images and videos to their text-based updates, their feed and website never seemed overwhelming or cluttered when viewed on a mobile device.

Overall, Red Bull is paying attention to their mobile-dominated audience and providing them with significant amounts of content accessible for mobile devices. They should take into account that it is more than the material they illustrate on their site that captivates their audience, but the way they format this material for their audience that really matters. I don’t know if it was just my smartphone, but I found it difficult to watch videos on their website. Considering the amount of videos they post on their social media accounts and website, they should definitely take this into consideration. A bad mobile experience can cost any brand or business customers. Fifty-seven percent of consumer wouldn’t recommend a business with a bad mobile website and 40 percent of consumers have turned to a competitor after a bad mobile experience. In order to optimize their social media presence for mobile, Red Bull should pay attention to their image sizes, and adjust their video content to be more mobile friendly.