This joint venture between Red Bull and Cell C offers customers two branded packages and four phones to choose form.

Red Bull phones

The phones are Red Bull branded and come standard with Red Bull Music Academy Radio and Red Bull X- Fighters.

Red Bull packages

The two packages are made up of the RBM100 (R149 per month) and the RBM200. (R249 per month)

Through the Red Bull Mobile portal, customers will have access to:

• Red Bull TV
• Free Red Bull downloads
• News and updates on Red Bull events and athletes
• Weather
• News
• Local entertainment

Red Bull is focusing on providing their customers with freebies and benefits: great if you are into sports and action.

• Tickets to Red Bull Racing
• Tickets to Top Gear Live Festival
• Monthly copy of Red Bulletin (Global magazine)

The Red Bull energy drink has been a booming success in the sporting world and has certainly been the drink of choice for many keen athletes and sleepy heads around South Africa. Whether or not they are able to succeed in the mobile market is something that only time will tell. However with Cell C on board, the relationship that these two exceptionally strong and successful brands have could be the beginning of bigger and better things for Red Bull.

Now from the outset, this seems like case study territory. This, wow, the CEO (the real one) of Cell C took the time to realise the power that is Trevor N……. I mean social media and respond to it, repairing the relationship and making Cell C a real social media powerhouse!

This was then followed by Trevor, seemingly, agreeing to be the face of Cell C’s social media campaign and within days (nay hours) you could not turn on the tv or the radio or drive down the street without seeing Trevor’s smiling mug as their new CEO (customer Experience Officer).  This was a onslaught of offline media driving hard at online, pushing people to go online and connect, to respond and to get involved in making Cell C the best cellular provider in the country.

Unfortunately the honesty and openness that is social media has been corrupt. Cell C staged the entire thing. Trevor was approached before the tweet went out! The domains were registered, the campaign planned, the logo changed (nice move that) and the (Im sure lucrative) deal with Trevor was signed and sealed.

Is this what social media has become..?

A place where large brands who have capital (read : cash) clout can monopolise the landsccape once more and write the story before we get to say if it is a story that we want to even read or not?! Are our delicate sensibilities yet again going to be plundered by large corporates?! (I’ll stop with the rhetorical questions now).

I personally believe that this is not the future of social media. This is an example of a large corporate who has based their social campaign on an offline strategy. Some say it is genius, others say it is ludicrous. Whatever your take on it, you have to admit it worked!  Whether it will have legs to continue being so prolific in the media and with consumers is another story which we will have to wait to find out.