Red Bull's School of Indian Physics

22 Feet Tribal Worldwide designs a digital campaign for India's first Red Bull Flugtag.

Red Bull is known to give you wings. Red Bull is also equally famous for the wacky activities it organises for adrenaline junkies, be it the jump from space or the soap box races. This time, the team has taken its brand promise quite literally and asked people to bring their wings along - aka a Flugtag.

A 'flugtag' is an air-show where homemade, 'human power crafts' are made to fly. Much like the Soap Box races (where a homemade car, without brakes or an engine, is driven in a fun downhill race), the Flugtag has whacky designs being displayed and launched off a pier into a waterbody.

While the first Red Bull Flugtag was held in Vienna in 1991, India got its very own Red Bull Flugtag on the 28th of last month, at Bengaluru.

Digital marketing agency from the DDB Mudra stable, 22 Feet Tribal Worldwide decided that an event of this character must not be promoted in the usual drab way. Drawing inspiration from gravity defying stunts one typically sees in Bollywood movies, Red Bull used 'Flying with Indian Physics' as an umbrella thought to promote the event.

"Red Bull is known for the adventurous sports it is associated with. We needed to do something from phase one to the end that would serve the double purpose of increasing footfalls and seeding the concept of a flugtag in India," explained Akhil Mehta, business development manager, 22 Feet Tribal Worldwide.

The challenge, however, was to sustain the idea for five months, duration of the campaigning stage, by using just Indian films and stunts. Therefore, 22 Feet Tribal Worldwide and Red Bull thought of designing the whole campaign like a crash course on the subject. Hence, the geeky name.

While the 'call for entries' communication resembled traditional adverts for tuition classes, the event registration form looked like an admission form for the School of Indian Physics. A 'library' was designed for all important archives. There even was a 'surprise test section' in place.

Stars that routinely defy Newtonian logic (read: Rajinikanth, Salman Khan) were named as alumni members.

The event itself was named the Final Exam while a scholarship was given to the 'best student' to represent the school at the event. A Red Bull Flugtag game was also launched to give it an authentic Sports Day-like feel.

During the course of the campaign, the game (made available on a branded micro-site) alone saw the participation of over 2,500 players who played a total of 67,422 games.

The actual event saw 35,000 visitors.

"This campaign posed a unique challenge as we were talking to an audience that wasn't familiar with the concept of flugtag. From 'Indianising' an existing Red Bull Flugtag game to creating an entire website themed around a school, we turned popular culture around its head with great design and outrageously funny content to 'initiate' our audience," a spokesperson from 22 Feet Tribal Worldwide said.

Red Bull has always been attached with fun activities like this one. The campaigning for Red Bull itself happens through these events. Other than such social activities - social since many teams or individuals are involved - one off events like the famous Red Bull Stratos also provides the brand with a fabulous platform to make a name for itself among those seeking an adrenaline rush.

The brand's famed 'The Athlete Machine - Red Bull Kluge' video featured some of the best names in various offbeat sports like skating, biking, etc. The video, based on a domino-effect theme, has garnered 21,075,699 (and counting) views on YouTube.

The Flugtag itself has been quite popular since its inception, with the record for the longest flight standing at 258 feet; the event was held in California last year.