Red Bull’s sponsorship of Felix Baumgartner’s skydive from space is some kind of content marketing milestone. They’ve always understood that taking advantage of social media for brands was about creating content worthy of your targets attention, doing things worth talking about. By leveraging their brand’s association with extreme sports they’ve become one of the most influential brands on Facebook. With this they’ve proven they’re willing to do what it takes to maintain their lead.

I’m not sure what this cost them, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot less than it would have cost to create the same level of brand buzz through any other medium… particularly given their target sees this as “real,” and discounts everything that smells like advertising in conventional media.

So Bravo, Red Bull. And Bravo, Felix.