Skift Take

GoPro and Red Bull inspire more travel than just about any other travel media brand you can think of. And if that makes you uncomfortable, talk to a young person and get even more uncomfortable.

Last week we launched our latest report in our Skift Trends series, Digital Video Marketing Strategies for Travel Brands.

Below is an extract. Get the full report here to get ahead of this trend.

GoPro, a high-definition video camera company, was founded in 2002 and it started to trade on NASDAQ in 2014. The video quality was never the real reason for its success. It was the unique perspective offered from being mounted on a user’s helmet as they jumped out of a plane, paddled through a rapid, or scuba dived in underwater caves in exotic locations.

Red Bull turned itself from being a beverage for adrenaline junkies into a content powerhouse, referred to as Red Bull Media House thanks to never-before-seen views of extreme sports taken by a pro — often with a GoPro. After GoPro’s initial public offering, it also became its own publisher to harness the creative content from its community of adventurers.

In October 2012, a world-class Austrian skydiver, Felix Baumgartner outfitted with seven of GoPro’s HERO2 cameras successfully completed a freefall from an altitude of 23 miles above sea level — on the edge of the Earth’s stratosphere. Baumgartner broke the sound barrier with his body reaching a velocity of approximately 650 miles per hour.

This event aptly named ‘Stratos’ was co-sponsored by Red Bull and GoPro and was broadcasted live on Red Bull’s YouTube channel. The video clocked more than 8 million concurrent live-streams. Three months later, GoPro released Baumgartner’s footage of the descent and incorporated the footage into a Super Bowl ad.

GoPro and Red Bull carved a new aesthetic, the arrested extreme — the footage is so awe-inspiring that you can’t help but watch. Although these two companies are not in the travel industry, they produce content that showcase unfamiliar destinations, pushing the boundaries of exploration, physical endurance, and the extended play selfie.

Wyoming Office of Tourism approved a Red Bull Media House production to film pro snowboarder and native Travis Rice for a movie early this year. Partnerships like these are advantageous in that high quality films will be distributed to Wyoming’s key international mountain markets.

According to the Adventure Travel Trade Association, adventure travel in 2009 and 2013 grew from an $89 billion to a $263 billion sector and Marriott Hotels and Resorts wants in on the action. They partnered with GoPro to provide free cameras to guests at its 17 properties in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The performance of the HERO4 has advanced to shoot in 16:9 aspect ratio which is the standard format of high definition widescreen televisions and computer screens. Also, the footage has a 4K resolution which makes the finished product have a cinematic quality.

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Tags: gopro, research reports

Photo credit: Adventurist Felix Baumgartner before descending to earth. Red Bull

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