Blendtec with their viral marketing campaign "Will It Blend?" kickstarted their company, and changed the way people perceive seemingly boring product such as a blender
Strategy & Tools
In October 2006 with a budget of $50, Tom Dickson, the founder, and CEO of Blendtec and his co-workers created a youtube video series called "Will it Blend?". Dickson bought just some boxes of glass marbles, a wooden rake, and other miscellaneous to record his first blending videos. He didn't know then that it would make Blendtec viral.
The main theme of Blendtec viral videos was to show off the prowess of their products by blending various items that you aren’t meant to blend.
In the first few episodes, Tom starring in a white lab coat, blended marbles, rake handle, can of Coke, and a Big Mac meal. Within five days, these clips had gone viral with 6 mln views.
Dickson has made many national television appearances, including:
Some radio stations also made a use of Dickson's fame and invited him to their programs.
Blendtec marketing was successful because Blendtec's blenders rock! The stunts would fail otherwise. The company has an overwhelming number of 5-star ratings on Amazon. It would take a while to find a model of its blenders with a rating under 4-stars. They are also not cheap, but consumers love them!
Although, they weren't so popular before the “Will it blend” campaign.
Psychology
There’s absolutely nothing interesting about the average blender. Most brands told the same story, "we have the best blades to help you unlock fruits' full potential." Blendtec didn't tell, they showed. They transferred features into benefits.
They aroused curiosity: Will it really blend? And as we know, curiosity is infectious.
They included comedy in the videos. Starting from an abstract theme itself. They blended such items as an iPad, an iPhone, a skeleton, glow sticks, superglue and other items that are not the usual recipients of blenders.
All of those characteristics made those videos "funny", "innovative", and "creative" - traits that consumers typically like to be associated with when they make a buying decision.
“Will it blend” viral marketing videos also included slogans like "don’t try this at home" warning, and during the filming, Tom Dickson sometimes said things like "don’t breathe this."
It increased their reliability in the viewers' eyes. They did funny and irrational experiments, but they remained cautious and responsible. Surely, their products must have been just as good!
We are attracted to strange and unusual things. Nowadays, you have to be “different” to get noticed by larger groups of people.
Blendtec viral videos surely were! What's more bizarre than blending random items with a typical kitchen blender? Today, it's nothing strange to see numerous strange videos like those on YouTube, but back then it was something completely new and out-of-the-box.
Window of Opportunity
There’s no such thing as a boring product or service! Find a new different perspective and go all the way. Doing something extreme or out-of-the-blender will get you noticed. You can build your brand from it.
For Content Marketing Experts: you can go to Google Ads and run brand awareness campaigns by prioritizing display ad placements. You can do blogging etc. But you can do a creative video and achieve the same and even more. Most people aren’t out there buying a whole collection of blenders. BlendTec is a case study in 38 business books around the world.
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