Red Bull’s signature logo ‘Gives you Wings’ was certainly true following Felix Baumgartner’s Oct. 14 jump from the middle of the earth’s stratosphere, which was sponsored by Red Bull, made social media and space history. The almost 23-mile free fall jump set records, not only stunning but also amazing people around the world, who reacted on through various social media channels online.

Red Bull’s social media channels certainly grew wings as more than 8 million viewers tuned into YouTube‘s live video stream of Felix Baumgartner’s leap. A number of Stratos-related topics also trended on Twitter, including #SpaceJump, #RedBull and #FelixBaumgartner.

Analysis company Taykey examined the chatter surrounding the Red Bull sponsored event and found at the peak of conversation conducted around the skydive, approximately 1% of online conversations revolved around the jump — gaining that much exposure, Taykey said, is “very rare.”

The company also found that 54% of the jump’s mentions happened on Twitter, 26% on Facebook, 6% on blogs and 14% on video sites.

In addition to this, Red Bull saw something extremely rare occur as the company’s name, held one-third of 1% of all Internet activity at the time, which is no mean feat.

Red Bull have illustrated how PR stunts and social media activity go hand in hand,  although it is very rare to get such great results… but great when they do happen! Well done to all involved.

Love Niamh x

Today, Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner will climb into an eight-foot-capsule and prepare himself for a world record-breaking jump sponsored by energy drink Red Bull.

He plans to dive 120,000ft – nearly 23 miles – from the adapted weather balloon full of helium. The journey will take just ten minutes.He will have to wear a suit similar to those worn by astronauts that will have to maintain its integrity in the near vacuum of the very high atmosphere. If Baumgartner’s suit leaks, his eyeballs will boil in their sockets and his heart will explode. The pressurized capsule is built to withstand temperatures of -60 degrees Centigrade.

Austrian Baumgartner is famous for stunts such as lowest parachute jump, 95ft off the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, and highest jump from a building – 1,479ft from the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A stunt like this has ever been attempted and depending on how the stunt goes, Red Bull could really take a hit PR wise if it were all to go wrong. Nothing makes worldwide news like eyeballs boiling in their sockets and hearts exploding while free falling back to earth…