Red Bull Stratos LiveJump is smart sports business

The Mission to the Edge of Space

The Mission to the Edge of Space world record supersonic freefall by Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team that broke the sound barrier is an instant Sports Techie Hall of Fame moment that tallied approximately $63 Million in sports business sponsor value for his record leap of faith from 128,097 feet. Over eight million global viewers gathered together around screens to watch Red Bull and their partners give Felix the wings needed to make this sports technology centric record.

Red Bull Stratos: http://www.redbullstratos.com/.

According to Red Bull, “Baumgartner reached an estimated speed of 1,342.8 km/h or 834.4 mph(Mach 1.24) jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall and set several other records while delivering valuable data for future space exploration.”

Partners and Sponsors

Jumping off the edge of a cliff or a Stratos capsule in a next generation full pressure suit, is an analogy for facing your fears, taking that first step into the unknown. Baumgartner’s successful jump made history with the contributions of like mined corporations and executives.

Sports Techie Felix is Austrian. He made Stratos happen together with his primary brand partner Red Bull: (http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Red-Bull-Home/001242746208542), and Zenith Watches: (http://www.zenith-watches.com/en/), in addition to, Riedel Communications: and Cypres Skydiving, automatic activation devices (AADs).

Zenith Watches: http://www.zenith-watches.com/en/#/video/v/14.

Sportsbiz

This unprecedented International special event set some sportsbiz bench marks, according to the data analysis of Front Row Analytics, a division of Front Row Marketing Services, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing sports and entertainment marketing firms. Front Row Marketing Services, a subsidiary of the sport and entertainment firm Comcast-Spectacor, is based in Philadelphia, PA with 35 offices spread throughout the world. Their information can be found at: http://www.frontrow-marketing.com/.

Overall Projected Value from Branding Exposure:

Red Bull – $48,116,333

Zenith Watches – $12,401,300

Secondary Sponsors:

Cypres – $1.5 million

Riedel – $216,000

The full list of Stratos Partners and Supporters is here: http://www.redbullstratos.com/partners-supporters/.

“Given the timing of the jump on a crowded Sunday afternoon, it is amazing how much exposure the record quickly received,” said Eric Smallwood, Front Row Analytics Senior Vice President. “While many focused just on Red Bull and their partnership, his secondary sponsors also pulled in some record dollars, again showing that timing and brand placement is everything when looking for exposure.”

Via press release: “FR Analytics did their detailed analysis by looking at the branding exposure (from signage, verbal mentions, on-screen text and logo placement) from Felix’s Space Suit, space capsule, lift crane, support team clothing, spectators apparel from the Live broadcast on YouTube and Discovery Channel in the United States & Canada. In addition, they analyzed the value received from broadcasts outside of North American over 200 countries.

FR Analytics also projected the value that will be reeived from all other exposure coming from the LIVE Jump, including Special TV Programs (Discovery Channel/National Geographic is producing a special broadcast), news radio & tv broadcast highlights (prior to and well after the jump), Newsprint and Magazine editorial content and photographs, Social Media and Internet exposure and other Ancillary exposure (i.e. promotional spots, merchandise, etc).”

Technology

The amount and cost of the expert technology and technologists used to pull this vision all together since 2005 is enormous. See http://www.redbullstratos.com/technology/.

There are countless Stratos tech factors involved. Team training, practice, weather forecasting, wind variables, meteorologists,GPS, medical exams, cranes, the techie airstream trailer, plus, countless systems, instrumentation’s, computers, communications, cameras, wireless, hardware, software, routers, servers, the payloads, and an all important parachute, are parts of the entire scope of tech that was invented, tested, then integrated together for LiveJump to work as planned.

The one unifying goal of the technology is to get green lights on the Go buttons signifying that their inspiring Stratos tech is ready, willing and able to set new records in the sport of freefall.

Team

The Red Bull Stratos team brought together the world’s leading Sports Techie minds in aerospace medicine, engineering, pressure suit development, capsule creation and balloon fabrication.

The grey haired man you see in Mission Control on the web broadcast is retired United States Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, who holds three of the records Felix will strive to break. Joe’s record jump from 102,800 ft in 1960 was during a time when no one knew if a human could survive a jump from the edge of space. Listening to a Senior Sports Techie like Joe is a wise decision by Felix. Having a mentor during the long months and countless hours of extensive training he underwent in order to get ready to attempt this death defying mission to the edge of space is priceless.

Chuck Yeager went supersonic for the first time in history 65 years ago riding a jet plane. On Sunday, Flex did it in with the assistance of a state of the art high altitude balloon, capsule, pressure suit and helmet. All three men, (Felix, Joe and Chuck) and their respective teams, get a Sports Techie salute in this blog for making it so.

Social Media

Twitter hashtags #stratos and #livejump helped funnel social media content into easy to find listings for fans and sponsors to engage together. Half the twitter trending topics involved this unique event. The marketing value of a retweet or mention from a user name with millions of followers remains undiscovered, however, it will prove to be a significant contributing factor in the sports business success of Stratos LiveJump.

A picture of Baumgartner posted on Facebook after the jump gathered over 216,000 likes, 10,000 comments and 29,000 shares, all within 40 minutes, according toABCNews. The Startos Youtube channel was another major component to the web broadcast success.

All the social media Big Data generated by Startos happened during NFL Sunday and a MLB playoff game day. Perhaps we are seeing a fundamental shift or swing towards the popularity of extreme and action sports that seem to transcend generations while being super hip to our youth at the same time.

Mission Accomplished – Red Bull Stratos – World Record Freefall:

Stratos Youtube video: http://youtu.be/dOoHArAzdug.

Sports Techie, sponsors and partners of Red Bull Stratos made a tremendous return on investment by associating with a sport that does not exist without technology. This special events financial success was generated via non traditional media. The amount of revenue generated for committed sponsors will undoubtedly increase as time goes on because of the incredible buzz factor this epic Sports Techie moment generated. Viewers got to witness the event online Live and for free which are good trends for any interested viewer.

Overall, Red Bull Stratos was a Sports Technology driven sportsbiz masterpiece for all involved and for others to study and try to recreate. A special shoutout to Felix, we get you.

I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie

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