Influx

The RED brand was launched with a fanfare from Bono and the corporate sponsors. just over a year ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but it didn’t launch its first products in the US until October.

Here’s the brand’s manifesto.

As of January 2007, RED has delivered over $11.3 million to the Global Fund and had estimated a further $10 million would be added when holiday sales were accounted for.

The US launch was helped by a PR launch that leveraged Oprah to the max and massive advertising campaigns from Gap and Motorola. This has driven consumer awareness of the brand to 20%.

RED’s goal is to expand the product offering and to expand the concept into other non-English speaking markets.

The critical challenge for RED is to stay top of mind.

It needs more PR spikes of news to sustain interest, as the Alexa traffic data below shows.

It will be tough job as we move into full election mode in the US and as there?s been a recent shift in interest away from Africa and towards the environment and global warming.

RED needs to develop two prongs to its campaign:

1. Rapidly bring new partners into the mix- Their advertising and promotion will help drive awareness

2. Clearly communicate what its efforts to date have achieved in Africa- To validate the brand’s mission and to continue to educate the consumer about the issue which the product ads aren’t doing.

They have a YouTube channel, which is smart move, but of all the films they have up, only Bono’s message for World Aids Day, has a significant view count.

Perhaps RED needs to reach out to obtain some user generated content, or ask a broad group of creatives to donate their time to create some compelling messaging for the brand.