In 2020, I was responsible for managing Red Bull’s partnerships in music, art, and dance throughout Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson. I developed and executed a strategy to deploy this $280,000 budget to empower creatives while bolstering brand visibility and product affinity within our target audiences of hip hop lifestyle, electronic music, street dance, and art.
Prior to COVID-19 lockdown, I oversaw my team process to execute 34 event partnerships, and executed 32 of these myself. This garnered 12,000 direct consumer impressions in Q1.
I’ve outlined the program in the rest of this post. Additionally, check out some of the partners I’ve had the privilege of being able to work with since 2019!
2020 PARTNERSHIPS SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER
Pre-Lockdown: Jan 01 – March 06
34
Events Supported
15
New-to-the-brand Partners Supported
70%
Of supported events used Red Bull Branded Infrastructure
27
Partners Supported
12,000
Attendees Reached
100%
Of supported events featured Red Bull Product Integration
Some Product and Infrastructure Highlights
PSA: Most of these were taken after-hours on my iPhone – lighting can be tricky!!
D Smoke with Red Bull DJ Desk
Kingfest – Inglewood
Jamie xx B2B Romy with Red Bull DJ Desk
Academy Awards Afterparty – Hollywood Hills
Attendee with Red Bull Energy Drink + Custom Drink Menus
Mixed Feelings Monthly – Hollywood
DJ Danifox with Red Bull Sugarfree
DJ Danifox EP release party – DTLA
Custom Red Bull Drink Menus
Lights Down Low Presents: Jaques Greene & Galcher Lustwerk – DTLA
Red Bull Bar Setup
Into the Woods Presents: Sebastian Mullaert & Vril – DTLA
Umru (PC Music) with Red Bull Yellow Edition
Heav3n Monthly – DTLA
Chester Lockhart with Red Bull Sugarfree
Heav3n Monthly – DTLA
PROGRAM EFFICIENCY
During Q1 of 2020, only 12% of the annual partnerships budget was spent to activate the 34 partnerships. The rest was earmarked for larger events throughout the year.
Of the budget used, only 22% was used on internal expenses, such as infrastructure and product delivery fees. The remaining 78% was dispersed to directly support our partners and their initiatives in the form of cash, artist booking, marketing support, etc. Internal costs were minimized due to weekly planning meetings between our logistics team and myself.
The above numbers reflect a 20% reduction in our partnerships budget in the wake of COVID-19 lockdown.
