Red Bull is the unchallenged market leader in the world of energy drinks, and hosts dozens of extreme sports events throughout the world each year. The Snowthrill of Alaska is the most anticipated freeskiing event of the year, and Red Bull wanted a web presence with a style reflecting both the sport and their brand.

Pod 9's RAPIDLaunch solution was a perfect match for the aggressive schedule and changing content of this event-based website.

The goal for Red Bull was a website that provided a true sense of the remoteness and unique competition of the event, utilizing strong visuals and video content, while also catering to a low-bandwidth audience.

Pod 9 and Red Bull decided to deliver two versions of the Snowthrill website. A Flash-enabled version incorporated rich media, animation, and interactive functionality. An HTML-only version provided quick loading pages while maintaining the visual themes of the Flash site.

A distributive content delivery strategy allowed for both the Flash and HTML versions of the site to pull their content from one set of files. This approach greatly simplified updates and modifications to the website. Downloadable wallpapers, high-resolution photos, and videos were developed for website visitors in order to promote both the event and Red Bull off line.

Because of the extreme environmental conditions during this event, careful preparation was needed to allow for last-minute changes to virtually every content area of the website, including daily event updates written directly from the field as they unfolded. Pod 9's planning and preparation in design allowed updates to be posted live to both versions of the website the same day as they came in.

The Red Bull Snowthrill of Alaska 2001 website was among the first of Red Bull's now widely popular event websites, which draw thousands of visitors each week into the world of Red Bull US Events. It also served as a prototype for the development of features and functionalities which today continue to help promote the Red Bull brand online.