Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz is dead. The Austrian multi-billionaire died at the age of 78.
The motorsports magazine “speed week“, a publication of the Red Bull Group. The Austrian is “a long, serious illness” shoot.
As part of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in the USA, Red Bull’s motorsport director Helmut Marko also confirmed the death of his long-time companion. “We knew he was in a difficult health condition”said Marko at “sky“: “Now that it has happened, it is still unbelievable that such a great personality had to go.” Mateschitz “unique” been, “but he was a humble man”.
Recently there had already been reports that Mateschitz was suffering from cancer. He had invested a large portion of his fortune in sport, most notably Formula 1 and several footballteams like DFB Cup winners RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.
Sport as a marketing tool
When Mateschitz discovered sport as a marketing tool for his fizzy drink company, it changed the world of professional physical exercise. It is well known that there were virtually no limits for him. The total success of his shower company was also based on the conviction of its founder to be at the forefront wherever he really wanted to be.
A year ago, it must have been all the more difficult for the entrepreneur, who was born in Styria, Austria, to lose this one bet after all. Mateschitz had bet with Uli Hoeneß in 2018 that “his” club RB Leipzig would be German football champions at least once by 2021. As is well known, nothing came of it.
1984 – a shower company gets wings
Defeat was not really an option for Mateschitz when he decided in the late 1990s to use sport as his company’s main marketing tool. In 1984 he founded the shower company “Red Bull GmbH” with the Yoovidhya entrepreneurial family from Thailand.
After a lengthy approval phase, “Red Bull” went on sale in 1987 and a success story began that is second to none. The newly created term “energy drink” was soon on everyone’s lips, and Mateschitz had not only created an innovative product, but also a completely new beverage segment.
Strategy: 40 percent for advertising
In Germany, demand was fueled by the fact that the drink was only traded on the black market until April 1994, as it was not approved for sale until then. The labeling of the ingredients – the juice contains the amino acid taurine in addition to caffeine and plenty of sugar – did not initially correspond to German standards.
Characteristic of the corporate strategy of Mateschitz, who was considered a marketing genius, were the high financial expenses for the global distribution of the brand name. 40 percent of sales should always be invested in marketing. The company relied heavily on the sponsorship of extraordinary sportsEvents like the “Taurus” launched in 2001 World Stunt Awards” in Hollywood and by several hundred individual athletes, including initially extreme athletes such as hang-gliders, mountaineers and parachutists, but then also ski racers, snowboarders and surfer.
2005: Mateschitz buys Austria Salzburg
Mateschitz only discovered his love for football relatively late. In 2005 he bought the football club Austria Salzburg and renamed it Red Bull Salzburg. He gave the club professional structures and invested many millions in buying coaches and players.
After selling the new Yorker Professional club Metro Stars took over and in the North American Major League Soccer (MLS) under the name Red Bull New York and installed a club in Brazil in 2007, Mateschitz also became active in German football in 2009: He founded the new RasenBallsport (RB) Leipzig club from the outsourced football department of the suburban club SSV Markranstädt.
Rangnick advances Leipzig
The declared goal of the project was the march through to the first Bundesliga. In addition, ex-Bundesliga coach Ralf Rangnick was initially installed as sports director for Salzburg and Leipzig in 2012 before he then concentrated entirely on the German Red Bull offshoot.
Company boss Dietrich Mateschitz with CEO Oliver Mintzlaff
In fact, RB Leipzig, under Rangnick, was able to complete promotion to the highest German division in spring 2016 and thus celebrate the march through from the Oberliga within just seven years. That already qualified in the first Bundesliga season team for the Champions League.
Achievements in Formula 1
However, one of the most important areas of Red Bull’s sports sponsorship has always been motorsport. As early as 1995, Mateschitz had moved to Schweizer with a two-thirds majority team Bought clean. being engagement it expanded significantly from 2004 onwards.
He earned the Formula 1team Jaguar (since as “Red Bull Racing Team” driving), in 2005 also the Minarditeam (henceforth: “Scuderia Toro Rosso”) and thus became the first owner of two racing teams in the premier class of motorsport. That triumphed in the 2010 Formula 1 season RedBull team around the German driver Sebastian Vettel and won the world championship titles in both the constructors’ and the drivers’ championship.
Losing prohibited
In 2016, however, the employees of the Mateschitz television station “Servus TV” found out what happens when you oppose your will. When they wanted to set up a works council there, he immediately threatened to dissolve the station. Losing just wasn’t his thing. And if it had to be, the stakes couldn’t be too high. So the bet with Uli Hoeneß fits the bill: Mateschitz lost a beer.