RETROWURST: Sports February 2007

 

Now, here’s something I’d all-but-forgotten-about. Eighteen years ago, hot on the heels of the 2006 Sommermärchen, Germany was whooping it up with handball fever...

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Germany are World Champions! Since Sunday evening, the streets have been wild once again with red, gold and black, with scenes not observed since back in July last year. The media went wild, Angela Merkel and other politicians were falling over themselves with praise, the Public Viewing arenas were bursting at the seams and the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin was blocked with a victorious, hooting, celebratory car convoy.

 

In case you missed it, the World Handball Championship has been hosted by Germany in Köln over the past three weeks and the championship came to its climax on Sunday afternoon with the final, which the German team won against Poland 29:24. This is the third time that the Germans have won: 1978 was the last time. 12m viewers watched the match which is reported as being a record.

 

While some of the hype and hysteria that surrounds the win here undoubtedly comes from the tournament’s proximity time wise to the football World Cup last year, with the inevitable comparisons being made, the handball team and the game itself have a number of elements which naturally lifted a victory in a somewhat niche sport to more of a media extravaganza. There was the spirit, development and character of the team, a likeable and largely photogenic bunch who steadily improved their performance over the duration of the tournament. They had humility (unusual in Germany) with no arrogant assumption that they would win at the out start. There was a cliff-hanger semi-final against France, where the French team led most of the way. And then there was the drama of the final itself, with the goalkeeper retiring with an excruciating injury at a critical point.

 

The trainer, Heiner Brand, was also critical not only to the success of the team, but to the way the media and the public became infected with handball-fever, too. Herr Brand is an instantly recognizable figure with his trademark walrus moustache and is known as “the face of handball” – no wonder as he was also a player in the World Champion team of 1978. Herr Brand’s almost iconic status was celebrated by the team as they donned stick-on droopy moustaches and what looked like Burger King crowns to receive their medals and the trophy. Although the total effect may have looked like the Village People do Panto to UK eyes, the team paid homage to their trainer and further proved that the Germans do have a sense of humour in one fell swoop!

 

Overall, however, it is the nature of the sport handball itself that is perhaps the biggest factor in making this victory a particular subject of media jubilation. Handball is a typical Volkssport, a sport “of the people”, a sport in itself something of an underdog. In the short tournament which lasted all of 17 days, there was very little of the glitz, glamour or spectacle associated with football or the Olympics, just good, honest sweat, energy and deserved celebration at the end. And although the sport was something of a minority interest (not anymore, it seems!) it is a classic spectator sport; fast-moving and entertaining. Handball is a sport that comes from local clubs in little villages, and, in that respect, it is a most democratic sport that requires no special equipment or perfect weather conditions, simply a hall, two goals and a ball. There has been a definite move in Germany away from the glitzy, the glamorous and the global to honesty, authenticity and Heimat, qualities of which handball has perfect possession.

 

It is hoped that the handball triumph may be the impulse that German sport needs to regenerate itself. While the popular professional sports that attract big sponsors and pay TV are thriving, the “grass roots” side is looking around desperately for the next generation. Sport in Germany is centred mostly on sports clubs, rather than schools. In any one village, you’ll find an impressive number of sports clubs, offering anything from gymnastics to handball to hockey. Many of these clubs have been around for well over 100 years and proudly display their year of founding in their name or crest (no logos, please!). There are very strict laws in Germany about how much money clubs are allowed to make and most of the money raised via subscriptions or events is ploughed straight into equipment and trainer’s salaries. Children tend to follow their parents into clubs but with increasing mobility and more working women, membership amongst the younger generation is tailing off. 

 

Not just the clubs, but the sports shops and sports article industry will be looking to the handball triumph for an upturn in their fortunes. This branch is facing a rather grim year: there has been a VAT hike from 16% to 19% and there is no football World championship to generate sales. On top of that, the extraordinarily mild winter has meant that sales of ski and other winter sports clothing and equipment have fallen drastically. It is estimated, for example, that the ski manufacturers will only sell 3.8m to 4m pairs this season, some 10-15% less as last year.

 

But maybe there is a ray of hope: already, since last Sunday, handball tricots have been flooding the sports stores. If there is no snow on your ski holiday, perhaps you can at least get a few friends together and have a quick game of handball in the village hall.

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... and, then? Well, 2014 happened with the football, but since then, there hasn't been that much cause for whooping. The biggest success of Euro 2024 was probably the pink away shirt. 

But I try to remain optimistic - I see plenty of evidence for sports enthusiasm on the local and regional level, despite a lot of doom and gloom hand-wringing. Sport sponsorship is a brilliant opportunity for local and regional brands to play a part in the local community and bring people together. Despite the obsession with putting people in boxes, I remind myself that love for a particular football team can override differences in political views.

On the global stage, I was talking with friends last week about how Germany could well use something like the Olympics to get the sport dynamo back up to speed. We’ve probably missed the boat on 2036, and I’m not convinced that the centenary of 2036 is a good look for Germany however it’s packaged. (There was a proposal for a joint hosting with Israel, but I really can’t see that one working out well, sadly). 

But how about 2040, which would be 50 years after the reunification? My idea would be an emphasis on the former East German cities outside Berlin - Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz. Could be a hat-trick for solving a few of Germany’s problems?

RETROWURST: Red Bull April 2005

 

In my collection of articles that I’m recycling for the purposes of Retrowurst, most cover a product category or perhaps a theme with some pertinence to advertising and marketing in German-speaking countries.

But one or two are about specific brands, and I’ve dusted off this one today. Not that Red Bull needs any dusting - the velocity of this brand is something else. Still. 

Here I was in April 2005, musing over the unlikely success of Red Bull.

Was it just another Austrian oddity, like Germknödel or DJ Ötzi?

How much design, how much luck?

Should Dieter Mateschitz sell-off at this point, take the money and run? (I was definitely underestimating him here.)

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In Forbes’ list of European billionaires, somewhere between the Russian oil barons and the heads of French luxury goods dynasties is Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian who has made most of his rapidly growing $2bn from one of the unlikeliest brand successes of the last twenty years. Herr Mateschitz is the father of Red Bull. Red Bull has grown from an unlikely-sounding proposition launched on the Austrian market in 1987 to a 1.9 billion can brand last year.

 

For those of us who first came across Red Bull in an Austrian ski resort in the late 80s or early 90s, the success of this strange beverage continues to surprise. Some of us who may have first encountered Red Bull in these days may well have written it off as a strange rather kitsch Austrian phenomenon along with vibrant turquoise toilet-cleaner coloured Schnapps, Germknödel or D.J Otzi. After all, here was something that tasted at best like melted boiled sweets, appeared to be full of all nasties known to man and seemed to defy any code of “food values” with its packaging. But Red Bull has remained a success in its native market and in Germany, as well as building up a firm following in other notoriously hard to penetrate markets such as the US, where it commands a 47% share in the $1.7 billion energy drinks market.

 

The secret of Red Bull and Herr Mateschitz’ success seems to be this: start with something of substance and integrity, certainly, but then break every rule in the marketing text book. This, of course is completely the opposite formula to most other new brand launches, be it the new breakfast cereal with added cranberry wholewheat yoghurt or the latest Popstars incarnation with its carefully balanced pre-teen, Mum and Dad appeal. For all its seeming artificiality, Red Bull is actually based on a real product. In his job as international marketing director for Blendax, Mateschitz discovered a syrupy tonic drink sold as a revitalizing agent in Thai pharmacies. He found this stuff really helped to overcome jet lag and decided to make a go of transplanting the idea of a tonic drink in Europe with the help of a Thai-based Blendax colleague who also owned a tonic drink company.

 

The main substance of the idea was kept intact: the key ingredients taurine, caffeine and glucuronolactone and the name, more-or-less. The original Thai name actually means red water buffalo, so Mateschitz kept within the genus! As a concession to Western tastes the drink was carbonated but the positioning was uncompromisingly clear and based on Red Bull’s key reason for being- “The Energy Drink”. An advertising slogan was dreamed up by Mateschitz and his friends, if the story is to be believed: “Red Bull gives you wings.” 

 

The next part of the story is rather interesting. Apparently, Mateschitz put his proposition to test via market research. The results were, according to legend, a complete disaster. One does wonder why someone with the strength of conviction that Mateschitz otherwise seems to exude should have had what seems like a moment of doubt about his idea and it’s not difficult to imagine that perhaps this was a set-up, maybe the first stepping-stone in Red Bull’s uncompromisingly anti-marketing position, in the same way that ageing creatives relish all those urban myths about such-and-such a now legendary advertising campaign “bombing in research”. After all, what could possibly be more appealing to a young target audience than hearing (on the grapevine) that a new product was considered totally unacceptable to the general population?

 

It is also questionable whether Red Bull’s marketing success was achieved by design or luck. It could be that we’ll never know as Mateschitz seems to be something of a master of post-rationalisation in interviews. What is certain is that it is one of the first brands to achieve global status via non-traditional, “grassroots”-up marketing. From the start, classical mass-media were all-but-excluded in favour of a program of steady and subtle infiltration into the desired group of people’s lives. In the early 1990s, Red Bull was never something you came across through TV advertising; it was discovered in off-beat bars and alongside alternative sport and music events. What would be considered as negative PR by many traditional brands simply fuelled the interest to add to the Red Bull mystique and aura of being dangerous, from rumours that it was made from bulls’ testicles, the lack of availability in certain markets through to some pretty serious stories about deaths associated with Red Bull.

 

Interestingly, while Red Bull claims it never actively encouraged promotion as a mixer for vodka, it seems that this was never discouraged in the way that it might have been for a drink with a bigger and more child-orientated parent brand. Again, it is interesting to speculate whether use as a mixer was pushed in a subtle way. There was certainly a base of existing behaviour in Germany and Austria for caffeine/alcohol mixes where brandy and Coke is a staple of any student party or local Fest. In the early stages, Red Bull’s distribution was mainly through bars where beverages other than milkshakes were consumed, rather than the sports clubs one would expect if one was positioning strictly along an energy-giving route.

 

The question now is: has Red Bull gone mainstream? Is it part of the establishment? More recent introductions such as a “Lite” version seem a bit against the character of the brand. If Red Bull is really selling out, maybe Herr Mateschitz may really be best off selling off now to one of real big boys and get going on his next odd idea.

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Although my account covered the “grassroots”-up approach - and the importance of mystery in the story, there’s zero mention of racing, Flugtag or extreme sports. Further research shows Red Bull Racing was only established in 2005, and by 2012, I’d found that piece of the jigsaw.

Dieter Mateschitz got his own wings in Oct 2022, but the legend lives on. Here is my tribute to a big, bold, bullish brand.

Bullseye

 

News came of the death of Dietrich Mateschitz this weekend, the richest man in Austria, with an estimated fortune of $20 billion, the energy behind the brand Red Bull. I have long been an admirer of the brand , which couldn’t be clearer about what it is and what it stands for. If anyone wants an example of boldness in brand form, this is it.

Although Mateschitz didn’t do anything by the textbook, Red Bull is a textbook example of the difference between a product and a brand - an example of how an entire brand empire has been built around a single product that Red Bull don’t actually produce themselves. That empire extends from the energy drinks to motorsports, extreme sports of all sorts, football, media, hotels, music and goodness knows what else. 

The brand is a powerful concoction of conviction, consistency and unconventionality. Very little seems to have been developed through workshops and market research, needs analyses, consideration of consumer journeys and pain points, competitive analyses and concept testing. As far as I know. 

It’s a bit early in the morning for a Flying Hirsch, but then again ...

Hybrid

I've always been proud of being something of a mongrel as far as my DNA goes, but now I can officially call myself a hybrid, with dual nationality - British (my Heimat) and German (my adopted home).

I do notice that this mongrel business is getting more and more on-trend with people proudly presenting their pick 'n mix DNA credentials on social media. And products and brands are going for it too - there's a huge push in the world of whisky to re-elevate the blend as something special in its richness, for example in this ad from Chivas:



I'm not entirely sure what that says about single malts (or the people who drink them) but never mind.

The lady at the Standesamt told me I could be German in Germany and British in Britain. I don't know - I think the other way round is more fun. Or perhaps I can be best of both, wherever I am. Or a humourless fat slag who can't cook if I'm merely feeling spiteful and perverse.

Getting back to brands, it occurs to me that all-too-often, simplicity is confused with clarity. Simplicity in the sense of straightforwardness, obviousness, a sort of inoffensive homogeneity, without Ecken und Kanten, as we say in German.

A brand to me can have clarity or coherence, yet still be rich, have paradoxes and contradictions, many facets, yet you can perceive and appreciate its wholeness. It may well have a one-word equity, if you're into that, but that word itself may have many facets and nuances, and be brought to life in many contrasting moods and styles.

This quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald seems apt here: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."

Let's try out my ability to function with that Chivas.

Chost!

Or is that Preers!

Gripping Stuff

Just back from my favourite winter wonderland, which has turned into Audi Quattro wonderland in the few years that I have been away. I'm not usually keen on blatant commercial activity in beautiful holiday resorts, but I have to say - maybe because I'm an Audi owner - that this works.

Although BMW are an 'official partner' of ski resort Obergurgl/Hochgurgl, it was the Audi Quattro activity that I noticed primarily. Compared to a full size ice sculpture, and a tent where photos are taken and a competition entered, the few posters for BMW that I saw rather paled in comparison.

There are posters for Audi Quattro, too, of course, all around the resort. These communicate the sponsorship and association of Audi Quattro with freeriding skiers such as Nadine Wallner. Grip and challenge - perfect!

But it's not just these rather more ephemeral communication pieces that melt with the thaw. Since December 2013, one of the traditional mountain huts has been rechristened the quattro Festkogl Alm.

I'm a fan of unlikely combinations - in this case, alpine cosiness and state-of-the-art automobile technology. Amid the wooden beams and floorboards are hi-tech interactive tables, giving you something of the Quattro experience.

Above the roaring fireplace is a Quattro gecko symbol, instead of the obligatory stag's head or stuffed marmot. And there were some lovely deep red felt branded drink coasters which beautifully combine both worlds.

Grip and challenge and Audi Quattro - how long before they start making skis?

Going to extremes

Although celebrity tie-ups and sponsorships can bring a brand real rewards if used well, there are always those worries when entering into this type of partnership. Will it really do something for my brand, or will our marketing budget simply boost the celebrity's fame and do nothing for us? What if the  celebrity in question turns out to be Bad News? I can't be the only one cringing when I think how Jimmy Savile dominated advertising in the 70s and 80s. Or what about all those doped cyclists?

In the case of a sponsorship - what if something goes wrong? This consideration is enough to stop many potential sponsorships in their starting blocks with some of the riskier sports.

But there is one brand that appears to be as fearless as the extreme sportsmen that it sponsors - Red Bull. The brand has built is image consistently and courageously through an association with unusual and extreme sports.

The latest example is the Red Bull Stratos Mission, in which sky diver Felix Baumgartner will attempt to break the speed of sound in a spectacular sky dive - and a record that is now over 50 years old. All of this at huge personal risk.

It's currently scheduled for tomorrow and, whatever happens or whatever you may think of Mr Baumgartner, no-one can accuse the brand Red Bull of not having balls.