Maybe I am not one to appreciate extreme sports or endeavours. But I guess Felix Baumgartner’s feat achieved yesterday is nothing to be sniffed at. Yesterday, Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier in a 24-mile space jump, which shattered the existing record for the highest altitude skydive.
The daredevil also broke some non-digital records, including the highest jump from a platform (128,100 feet), the longest distance freefall (119,846 feet) and the maximum vertical velocity (833.9 mph or Mach 1.24), the YouTube post added.
Now what has the jump proved and what will the jump do to Felix Baumgartner hereafter? Apart from risking his life to attempt this jump and putting his name in the world’s limelight, at least he would be swamped with many speaking engagements and I am sure a book deal or even an endorsement would come out of this. Henceforth, he would be seen as the epitome of courage and fearlessness.
Francis Ebuehi and Lewis Pugh (The Human Polar Bear)
In a similar vein, I remember attending a speaking engagement by the human polar bear, Lewis Pugh – when he talked about his record-breaking swim across the North Pole in a speedo to highlight the melting icecap, another death defying event. He succeeded in this swim and Investec even made an TV ad out of his feat. I even got him to autograph his book “Achieving the Impossible : A Fearless Leader, A Fragile Earth”, a book that tells about his life, the swims and his fight for awareness of climate change. Check out the Investec ad below:
Red Bull obviously got a winner in this event. The event, titled Red Bull Stratos and sponsored by Red Bull Energy Drink, conformed to the company’s slogan: “Red Bull gives you wings.” The space jump gave Red Bull roughly 8 million eyeballs watching live coverage of the feat and Red Bull’s logo. It was truly a great marketing which was a bit of a gamble as it would have done a big dent on Red Bull’s image if something had gone wrong. But since it went well, Red Bull will have gained new customers and Red Bull Stratos will continue to be talked about and passed along socially for a very long time. Well there are guesstimates being peddled by brand experts around about Red Bull’s worth after the jump such as “The Telegraph’s report” stating that Red Bull is ‘worth £5bn’ after Felix Baumgartner skydive
Well I would say it was a win-win collaboration. At least, we should expect TV adverts with Felix anytime soon.
Francis is a ‘hands-on’ Executive with experience in the profitable launch, sales, marketing and rollout of new products and services, and Project Management. He is the Principal consultant of Tenth Code Media. He has extensive experience in Technology, Media, Telecoms, Digital Financial Services industries