“There’s the world out there…” So said Felix Baumgartner before leaping to Earth from 24 miles above the ground. His skydive was watched, live, on YouTube, by millions.
“I’mm going home now,” he said, then tumbled through the sky for over 4 minutes. Baumgartner landed smoothly and safely in a field, a gentle ending to a stunt that saw him breaking the sound barrier.
“I wish the world could see what I see,” he reflected later. “Sometimes you have to go really high to see how small you are.”
I was intrigued by the Red Bull Stratos project for several reasons.
- Going up really high in a hot air balloon then jumping back down to Earth sounded like an enjoyable, if slightly pointless, stunt (in the same way that all the trips that I do are enjoyable and slightly pointless). It is hard to find funding for something without a tangible , physical ROI or a meaningful outcome. Of course there are loads of positive spin-offs in all directions from a project such as this. But, ultimately, all that stuff stems from the essence of the trip: the magical ludicrousness of taking a hot air balloon to space and then jumping out of it.
- The build up to the launch showed a project of extraordinary ambition, complexity and expense.
- Red Bull had done a really good job at publicising the event. And this was the part that interested me the most:
- … for this was a superb demonstration of harnessing the internet, blogs, YouTube and social media to tell a good story.
If you want your story to be heard, you only have to do two things.
It doesn’t even matter what your story is.
All you need is a great story, and to reach out to the niche of people who are interested in your story. Your niche may be 50 people or 50 million people. It’s pretty hard to add new people to your niche (that requires fundamentally changing people’s interests and hobbies). So don’t worry about the size of it. Worry only about telling the very best story you can, and reaching all the people who might be interested in it. That’s all you can really do.
Red Bull Stratos have done that magnificently. Anyone looking to be an online storyteller can learn loads from them. Here’s what they did:
- Had a fabulously catchy story (man skydives from space)
- Built anticipation before the event through regular, short (but useful) blogs and videos about the preparation phases
- The nature of these posts encouraged people to share them with their own circles on social media sites
- Look to educate, inspire and entertain in every piece they put out
- Clever repetition. Work out what the essence of your story is. Then repeat it over and over again, in slightly different, interesting ways. But keep banging out the core message.
- Streaming the whole story live on YouTube was the real magic of this story. The internet cries out for real time stories. (I am about to experiment with a delayed-real time story to see whether that is a viable approach. My hunch is that it will be logistically easier but slightly less appealing to the audience. I’mll let you know).
- Encourage people to comment, share and feel involved on both Facebook and Twitter.
- Sit back and bask as every major news website and TV show headlines with your bonkers story.
What did you think of the Red Bull Stratos project? Does it have any relevance to your own little internet project? Or does it demonstrate that what you really need in life is a multi-million pound budget and a shiny space suit?
“Going up really high in a hot air balloon then jumping back down to Earth sounded like an enjoyable, if slightly pointless, stunt.”
Really?
More pointless than rowing the Atlantic? More pointless than cycling round the world?
I find that a rather pointless comment coming from someone such as yourself.
There’s so much interest in Baumgartner as he’s pushing limits, there would have been massive interest without ‘Harnessing the internet’, people would want to hear about this. It’s one of the most exciting things I think I’ve ever seen.
Nobody wants to know about yet another middle-class adventurer walking to the South Pole, or Trekking through Jungles, or cares who’s cycling round the world.
I don’t mean to be blunt, I respect what you do, it’s just my opinion in light of this story.
Hi Karlos,
Thanks for your post – I have modified my sentence about it being pointless as I really did not express myself very clearly. Thanks for highlighting that.
I think the class issue is irrelevant really.
And I completely agree with you that the Stratos project was spectacular!
Nice edit 🙂
The class thing was just a general observation of a certain breed of ‘adventurer’ and not aimed directly at you (nor were any of my comments), like I said, I respect what you do and find your trips inspiring.
This was absolutely a stunt, and largely useless (if not perhaps pointless). As Hilary said, “Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it”. If it had genuinely been a mission to gather accelerometer data and barometric and biometric information for NASA, they’d have bundled a crash test dummy out of that pod with a million sensors strapped to it. Using a human is a clumsy, fallible way to gather facts these days. Researching an escape system from spacecraft? I watched Challenger come apart when I was a schoolboy (at 65,000ft, so lower than this jump). It didn’t look to me that they could have just opened the door and bailed out. I’m no expert, but giving an astronaut a parachute seems rather like issuing the captain of a supertanker a cork.
And where were the limits he was pushing? We had suits that enabled a man to walk around *on a different planet* in the 1960s. If you held an average-sized classroom globe, Baumbartner’s jump was from a millimetre above its surface. It was the act of jumping that gripped us all. The ultimate daredevil feat. Go on, jump! And that in itself, was, as Messner put it so well, “Useless but meaningful”.
If you want to know about pioneering, how about Elon Musk’s Dragon spacecraft, which started regular cargo flights to the International Space Station last week? No archaic helium-filled balloon for him. He built (privately!) a frickin’ reusable spacecraft that can dock precisely with a space station that travels at more than 17,000mph. As a feat of man-made endeavour it was astonishing, but it wasn’t live-streamed to millions and didn’t catch the headlines because there wasn’t a human being on board, and therefore absolutely no risk of anyone’s blood boiling or eyeballs bursting. It was a spacecraft with nothing on board except cargo.
It’s the stunt and the risk and the drama that we crave, and in some ways Stratos was a project that was ideal for Red Bull and for the YouTube generation – the entire work of one man’s life; his sole focus and everything he had aspired to for years – the whole thing could be boiled down to a tweet and a few seconds of video. Saccharine-sweet, caffeine-pumped adventure-lite that can be bolted down with the cornflakes before you dash for the train.
It was a well-managed, well-publicised and well-executed adventure; a useless but meaningful stunt, and for that Baumgartner rightly deserves the applause he’s getting.
“I’m no expert, but giving an astronaut a parachute seems rather like issuing the captain of a supertanker a cork.” – very funny!
Useless but meaningful is a good summary of this.
I don’t think he ever said that he is doing it for science. But you can not call this jump useless, meaningless or pointless.
I think that 8km higher jump, no stabilizing parachute and breaking the sound barrier can be easily called pushing limits.
And no, even if you had all the money in the world right now, you could not make a crash test dummy that could jump from 39km and gather the info they got with Felix.
It was pitched as a scientific exercise from the outset. This is the project’s “mission statement”:
“Red Bull Sratos seeks to advance scientific discoveries in aerospace for the benefit of mankind.”
http://www.redbullstratos.com/the-mission/what-is-the-mission/
As far as robotic data-gathering crash test dummies go, here’s one that jumped 563,000,000km that’s pushing a few limits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_rover
Ben, if you open the webpage you linked and read the first line, you will see this: “Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space, will attempt to transcend human limits that have existed for 50 years. “.
I understand that as a clear statement that they want to go where no man has gone before and push the limit. Then they also write that with this they will also gather scientific data, which is true.
I’m sorry, but you can not compare Curiosity rover with a human. Both have advantages and disadvantages and one works better for one mission and the other for another.
I don’t know where to begin to explain why a robot dummy would not work for Felix’s jump. The most obvious to see is that we don’t have a model that can represents the psychological side of a human.
Using the human being rather the dummy was the critical factor here – it created a story and allowed others to empathise and communicate with a person. Saying that the communications side of the story was a useless stunt is missing the point – Red Bull piled in their cash because they want to sell drinks and need to be seen. (Space travel is becoming increasingly in the hands of private investment, which is no better or worse than the agency of a superpower). The data collected wouldn’t have been collected from a dummy because in 2012 no-one would have paid for it. It was this way or not at all. I also challenge anyone to inspire tens of millions of people with a falling crash dummy.
‘Saccharine-sweet, caffeine-pumped adventure-lite that can be bolted down with the cornflakes before you dash for the train.’ – only because it was beautifully communicated and had the combination of genuine uncertainty and risk. I challenge even the purest desert, ocean or polar expedition to beat that.
Sadly, Alex, I have to agree that this trumps any polar/ocean/mountain/cycling adventure that any of us are likely to ever be involved in!
Speak for yourself! If I felt anything trumped the path I’m following (jumping out of balloons included) then I’d be doing that instead…
I referred simply to the jump trumping polar travel for a succinct ‘heart in mouth’ moment and the associated ‘will he die or won’t he’?
The physical and mental stamina on a multi-month high-end polar trip clearly does its own trumping in the latter case.
More specifically to Ben’s point though – I certainly wouldn’t ‘jump genre’ if I suddenly found a bigger challenge in jungles or balloons. I love polar – end of.
Have you guys seen this film?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Moon_(film)
I fear that film does make Space trump Polar (if we are playing adventure Top Trumps…)
Nice summary Al. I think it comes down to two key components:
1). Doing something interesting
2). Telling the story well
The internet and social media is, as you point out, a great way of reaching a niche audience, but the story-telling is key. This event was pretty incredible, but good storytelling can make even mundane experiences interesting to an audience.
“We live to conquer fears and pursue dreams, may our attempts and accomplishments progress humankind.” Felix Baumgartner 14/10/2012
I love that quote because he I feel he recognises that at face value the thing is pointless (as you said) but that by personally conquering a fear(s) or pursuing his dreams that it could inspire others to do something and that, that inspiring others to change their lives is worthwhile.
Pushing limits is never really pointless is it?
And my understanding is that NASA had a real interest in this as a future escape maneuver for astronauts if there were a loss of cabin pressure in the stratosphere, so again, not pointless. Red Bull is a genius marketing machine – they were able to push crack in a can to an adventure seeking demographic and then continue to build their audience to include people like me who don’t particularly care for their product but enjoy the fact that they support remarkable individuals who push the limits. And to your point, they harnessed the power of the Internet like very few have done. Will these “adventure spots” either live or delayed be the future of storytelling? Storytelling is an art form …..have you ever been trapped at a long and painful dinnertime story?….YouTube and Vimeo just allows us to actually get up from the table relatively unnoticed if you suck at telling stories 🙂
Agreed that it was a marketing triumph.
On the subject of pointlessness – I’ve said it before but it’s a non-argument. Everything from music to cinema to sport is pointless in practical, objective terms. But that’s not how the world works and it’s not how humans think, thankfully!
Hi Alex,
This was not supposed to turn into yet another debate on pointlessness! I agree with you completely on this.
And the marketing was drool-worthily astonishing. Red Bull must be grinning like Cheshire cats this morning.
On twitter, as well as following you Alastair, I follow friends, family, chefs, cyclists, politicians, scientists, writers, artists, comedians, that so many of them were all talking about this event was just wonderful. I know that something similar happens on twitter every time x factor was on, but it was so impressive and inclusive to read all these tweets of awe and inspiration.
I watched him freefall with my father-in-law on my laptop in the kitchen. It was heartening, if only for a few moments, to watch a positive event with a global audience. To be impressed by ambition, courage and achievement and not bogged down by bad news.
Indeed – a unifying dose of good news is a much-needed thing.
Good Point Patrick.
I watched the jump in my living room with two friends. It was the best thing I’ve seen on the internet. Period.
I teach geography to boys in a secondary school in Dublin. And they’ve been begging me to give a lesson on Felix’s jump since I mentioned it last week.
Alex made the point that “Using the human being rather the dummy was the critical factor here – it created a story and allowed others to empathise and communicate with a person. That’s the point of adventure stories isn’t it? That’s what makes adventure meaningful; it brings the world alive, makes people and places engaging. Felix’s jump highlighted the power of a compelling adventure.
Anyone with their critical faculties in working order should be able to see through the spin and blatant commerciality of the project. Red Bull’s a stunt machine, and everything they do is to sell their product, that’s a given. Ben’s spot on about the empty scientific credentials of the project. Red Bull’s storytellers obviously identified that science, spurious of not, added gravitas and should therefore be written in.
So was there any meaning, or value to the jump? I think there was, inadvertantly, everyone of the 8 million people who watched the live feed spent minutes staring at the earth from (near) space, together, in real time. That’s never happened, ever before. The blue marble image is often cited as conciousness changing image; if that’s true then getting the world captivated by pictures of the earth from (near) space, even if there’s a logo in shot, is special.
Really interesting discussion…
Just to add to this thread, I watched the jump live with my grandparents.
Moments like this are great – explaining to a someone in their eighties that they are watching a man skydive from space, live… and we are sat in a cosy lounge, on a farm in Cornwall watching it all on a laptop!!
Fantastic summary – and some very interesting comments. I also struggle to see the point of it all.
Red Bull, however, are geniuses – how they turned an average energy drink in to a billion dollar extreme sports brand is incredible.
Also – people need to realise that he didn’t jump from space. Space was still a long way off where he jumped/fell from. If he were in space he wouldn’t have ‘fallen’, but perhaps saying space makes it sound grander?
Thoughts on ‘the point’ here. I think Al wants to avoid the ‘pointless’ debate here:
http://www.alexhibbert.com/blog/2012/10/15/the-point-is.html
Sorry to redirect traffic – make sure you return to this blog after!
I didn’t mean for it to sound like I wanted to debate ‘the point’; Apologies. Really enjoying your article, and the comments, Alex.
My main concern was the fact people think he jumped from space.
Reading with interest! Thank you Al.
To replace a new roof on a house with another new roof = Pointless
To replace a bicycle inner tube without a puncture = Pointless
Walking unsupported / supported to a pole, cycling around the world, climbing Everest, jumping from the edge of space, walking the Amazon… None of these challenges are pointless – these are good for the soul, interesting and hugely inspiring for others. No? If organising these type of expeditions is pointless then playing tennis, golf or chess are all pointless too. They are only pointless if one doesn’t enjoy it – we do these things because we enjoy doing them, in my humble opinion.
Karlos above says “Nobody wants to know about yet another middle-class adventurer walking to the South Pole, or Trekking through Jungles, or cares who’s cycling round the world.”
I completely disagree. I was blown away reading about Ed who walked the length of the Amazon – what an achievement! Who can disagree with that? These people are doing it for themselves – they are not doing it for anyone else. I agree with Al, Class is completely irrelavent. I bet Al had a blast cycling around the world, discovering himself, new places, making new friends, challenging himself in his own way… brilliant! Why not? Likewise, Mr Saunders, walking to the pole unsupported – great, why not… good luck… and Al, you too will walk to the pole – go for it – I shall be following together with many others (with the exception of perhaps Karlos ;))
To do something that no man or woman has ever done before makes it even more exciting. If you don’t enjoy what you do then don’t do it! If you enjoy something then it is good for you. I am not certain that Felix ‘enjoyed’ his jump (!) I am quite certain that he was utterly terrified, not knowing if he was going to live or die. It sounds like this was the ultimate challenge for him and that he now wants to lead a ‘normal’ life; fly helicopters, rescue people, fight fires etc… he says he has ‘got it out of his system’
Back in 2006 I walked up Everest with my brother, took some photos and walked down again. Many people sneer at this because nowadays so many people do it – people perceive it as an ‘easy’ challenge… who cares what others think? We did it for a bit of fun, with a small group of friends and Sherpas. We did it to challenge ourselves in our own little way. For me I feel I am a better person having done it – it is out of my system. Now I live a simple life in the country, with my wife and children. I still have the odd ‘micro adventure’ with the children camping in the woods etc, or flying my paraglider on the Downs, or swimming in the river in the summer… are these things pointless? No, because life is what you make it. I too watched Felix jump live on my iphone with our two small children. An historic moment that they may or may not remember in later years…
On the marketing side – it could have gone very wrong for Redbull if Felix had not survived – luckily it went to plan and his mother could rest easy. Great the way you tube were able to stream it live – this made it even more thrilling as no-one knew the outcome.
Well done Felix… indeed… “sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you really are”…
By the way, it was a helium balloon – not a hot air balloon 😉
Tom, your second paragraph sums up my recent blog post neatly (linked above). Agreed totally.
Class is indeed a genuinely pointless debate as no-one controls the way they’re born into this world. We either make the best of it or we don’t and the class-warriors tend to be chippy – not the sort you’d want to go for a pint with…
Everest is another matter since the complaints are not so much that people do it, but that some misguided individuals are not honest with others about what is entailed and see the summit as their ‘right’.
Good blog post and discussion.
Hello Alex
Yes – I read your blog having already posted and found it very interesting. I didn’t realise you were a polar man too! Good for you – you probably know my good friends Steve Jones, Martin Hartley, Adrian Hayes etc… I’d love to try and get to the South Pole one day – trouble is, the older one gets, the more life gets in the way!
Small world indeed.
Yes – I am rather tired of the Everest debate – people ‘big it up’ and they do it for the wrong reasons – to get noticed or to ‘impress’ others. We did it for ourselves – to have a little adventure – to escape normality – to have some fun with a small group of friends on a small budget!
Stay well – over and out – TC
People certainly big up Everest but you shouldn’t belittle it to no more than a ‘walk’ and a ‘small budget’. I’m sure it was neither a walk, or done with a small budget (depending on what you’d describe as small), and a far tougher ordeal than you let on!
Aslong as people are honest in what they’re doing, and it’s put in to perspective, then surely people shouldn’t worry too much about it?
‘As long as people are honest in what they’re doing, and it’s put in to perspective, then surely people shouldn’t worry too much about it?’
Herein lies the absolute crux of the matter.
Hi Tom / Alex, yes, people have to be honest in what they are doing for sure. Everest up the normal route with oxygen is fairly straight forward. Everest up the Hornbien couloir without oxygen is not so straight forward! We were lucky and got sponsored by HP but had we not got sponsored it would have cost us around £12k – cheap when you think some individuals pay £50k plus… We went as a small team of friends…
I don’t know about everyone else but I have never had a red bull. Now I’m buying stock and put a case aside for my next 100 mile run.
“I’m no expert, but giving an astronaut a parachute seems rather like issuing the captain of a supertanker a cork.” – very funny!
Best line ever.
The eternal debate of what makes exploration. Just last weekend I was giving a talk to children, making the difference between Voyagers, Adventurers & Explorers. Voyagers travel, Adventurers seek the thrill, Explorers go outside of their comfort zone to learn more about what it is to be human, and to discover new perspectives, new territories.
We live in an era of Adventurers – just look at National Geographic, Discovery Channel and YouTube. Everything nowadays is distorted by the a flair of drama. The fine line between Adventurers and Explorers is really thin and to my opinion can be summarized to one thing – the intent! And the way it is often displayed is by how humble one will be.
It was really interesting to hear J.K. Rowlin on the Daily Show yesterday, talking about the characteristics of a hero. I think there is a lot there to correlate with this debate.
For me, an explorer is not limited to these big expeditions. An explorers is someone who will make a conscious effort to make what is necessary to learn new things, to broad new horizons, to boldly go where no one has gone before – not only physically but mentally. For someone who has had a 9 to 5 job for 20 years and decides one day to follow his or her guts and seek fulfillment, that his also exploration.
I can’t say if Felix is an explorer or not. I have never met him and will probably never. Only by talking to him and listening to the wisdom the explorer usually develops, i would be able to make an opinion. In the meantime, for me, although I applaud his courage and dedication, Red Bull Stratos was the ultimate thrill, the ultimate adventure, wrapped in a wonderful stunt. I congratulate him and his team for the accomplishment, but all that doesn’t make him an explorer per se.
One big jump for man one giant leap for corporate PR.
I will rather read a book of adventure like Tom Avery’s ‘To the end of the earth’, Bill Bryson’s ‘A walk in the woods’, Alastaire Humphreys’ ‘Thunder and Sunshine’, Tom Ryan’s ‘Following Atticus’, etc. rather than an “enjoyable, if slightly pointless, stunt.”
I think an adventure nicely narrated increases the knowledge of mankind on our precious natural, archaeological, historical, religious, and cultural resources.
A well written book about an adventure or expedition of any kind is my preferred ‘campfire reading. It is likely that we have all been drawn to Al’s site because we are all adventurers in our own way and I suspect that none of us would say that our own adventures are ‘pointless’. At the most basic level we do things for our own reasons be it to challenge ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally or even spiritually.
To get an insight into what is involved in perusing a dream of this scale I suggest that you read ‘Free Fall’ by Tom Read who some years ago tried to secure the funding to attempt the same jump but who disappeared into obscurity after the constant pressure of trying to find a ‘Red Bull’ of his own tipped him over the edge.
The story of Tom’s adventure and ultimate failure can be had for a few pounds on Amazon, unlike Joe Kiitingers, the original high altitude jumper, ‘ Long Lonely Leap’ which currently sells for £900+
Certainly the Internet, and companies like Red Bull seeking the next marketing opportunity open more doors but we should not under estimate the effort the Felix would have had to put into securing the funding for ‘ His ‘ personal adventure.
He got the funding and support he wanted and Red Bull got the marketing they wanted its no more complex than that.
It’s very simple, in the world of exploration and adventure funding is king.
Ps if anyone has a copy of Joe Kiitingrs book that they would be willing to lend, I’d love to read it. 😉
Just to clarify my comments, particularly “Nobody wants to know about yet another middle-class adventurer walking to the South Pole, or Trekking through Jungles, or cares who’s cycling round the world.”
I should have phrased that maybe something along the lines of “The Masses” aren’t interested. I trying to say that Baumgartner’s jump was something that was of global interest as it really captures the imagination. Where as the smaller scale expeditions really only appeal to a small niche of like minded fools, myself included 😉
I also agree that class is probably irrelevant.