A big part of advertising is convincing thought-leaders (marketing speak for 'the cool kids' in a given social sphere) to use your product. If spending $60,000

A big part of advertising is convincing thought-leaders (marketing speak for 'the cool kids' in a given social sphere) to use your product. If spending $60,000 on a series of events gets two or three 'cool' people to promote the product, who in turn influence even just 1000 followers to become regular drinkers, then it's paid for itself. I think in the US a (single) can of red bull at a gas station is around three bucks, so at a 30% cut a roughly can-a-day habit earns them at least $1000 a year. (Making some big simplifications about transport/retailers cuts). Combine that with big mass of people who might buy a can or two a week (and thus might be easier to influence) and you can see why sponsoring cheap, high-influencer events like extreme sports and niche music/hobbies that trickle down is a pretty clever marketing strategy. Pabst Blue Ribbon is a great example of this same strategy, they were a cheap redneck beer until they started sponsoring a string of low volume indie rock/fashion events in the big cities, and made sure that drinking it would be 'ironic', and now they're hugely popular with young people.