Blend It: 6 Remarkable Lessons From this Record Setting Campaign

The networked markets know more than companies do about their own products, and whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone. The Cluetrain Manifesto book. Funny. Memorable. Manly.  The keys for success from the Blend It marketing campaign. And certainly something you’ll want to do for a networked market. Like Blendtec did very successfully.

Will It Blend? is a marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various unusual items in order to show off the toughness and power of his blender.

As a little background, George Wright, Blendtec’s vice president of marketing and sales created a YouTube and marketing campaign called “Will it Blend”?

Here is a Blend It video.

He happened to witness CEO, Tom Dickson feeding a 2×2 inch wooden board into a commercial blender as part of his destructive test and found it fascinating, hence thought others might get a kick out of watching the process, and the idea for creating a video was born.

Related post: 14 Jaw-Dropping Guerilla Marketing Lessons and Examples

So here is what your business can learn about how to create a similar marketing campaign:

Blend It … short, snappy videos

A recent online video study shows that 82 percent of Internet users watch online video at an average of 5.6 hours a week. And if you have a video that wants to be seen, the best possible platform, according to comScore, is YouTube.

And remember to keep it short and sweet on Youtube, as viewers prefer not to want to sit through lengthy videos. The simple objective … turn marketing into useful, entertaining content, not content into marketing.

Lots of content

The old saying, never put all your eggs in one basket, certainly applies to marketing.  Blentec heeded this advice during its video response-heavy social media campaigns.

The approach is definitely quantity over quality. Try to make the best things you can, and as great as you can, but then move on to the next one. It’s more about pumping out many videos than it is about getting five that are absolutely perfect.

If you create quality content, chances are that people will want more. After all, more content for fans to consume means happier fans. Blendtec attacked this idea by producing as many commercial-quality video responses as possible.

Whenever a brand can give back—to give to the consumers more than it asks of them, in terms of entertainment and value—people are going to have a better feeling about that brand.  Any brand can do that. Always try to provide more in terms of entertainment and surprise and enjoyment to build that equity with the consumer

Blendtec’s first “Will It Blend?” videos became the 33rd-most-viewed series ever on YouTube and helped drive sales of the company’s $399 high-end consumer blender up  500%.

Build community through engagement

Tom Dickson, is the star of the videos. You see him put different crazy things in the blender and say “Will it blend? That is the question”. While the item is blending he smiles and waits for the process to end. When it does, he empties the contents and the subtitle “Yes! it blends”appears.

Once the videos got rolling, Blendtec engaged their fans seeking ideas for things to Blend. Fans become more fanatical when their favorite brands go out of their way to invite them in on the fun.

Will it blend marbles … link to significant media events

Some episodes were produced to coincide with significant media events. For example, three episodes aired during Super Bowl weekends. The first episode had Dickson blend a smoothie out of salsa, tortilla chips, Buffalo wings, and some Budweiser.

The second and third episodes used two blenders to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl by blending miniature helmets (AFC versus NFC) and foam footballs. Who says a brand can’t have a personality?

To coincide with the release of the film Transformers, Dickson blended the Transformers toys Bumblebee and Swindle before challenging two of his grandchildren to transform the remains. Make things personal.

Will it blend movie … memorable theme and tagline

One of the most surprising, extreme episodes featured Dickson placing six Bic lighters in the blender. In a matter of seconds, the mixture of butane, metal, and plastic ignited into a ball of fire inside the container. The scene was exaggerated by the addition of nuclear explosion film footage before one of the production crew sprayed a fire extinguisher on the still-operating blender.

Will it Blend Marketing Campaign followed good marketing principles

Of course, Dickson and Wright aren’t as crazy as they look. They observe all of the cardinal rules of good marketing strategy. First, they have a very good product. Second, they put it through its paces: if it can blend a video camera, it won’t be troubled by a pile of strawberries. It’s funny and original because it’s so different.

Dickson doesn’t take himself too seriously, so you feel good about the man behind the product too. And of course, if you look at the proper Blendtec website, all the sensible stuff is there too – product information, blending advice and tips about food preparation, how to order a blender and so on.

The company, in other words, has created a personality for itself and its products, invites people to join in the fun (you can suggest things to blend via email), and adopts behavior that is a combination of the deranged and the single-minded. It leaves you wanting more as all great campaign ideas do. What will they blend next?

As of March 21, 2013, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 294,098,738 views on YouTube.

Use Multiple Marketing channels

The videos are such compulsive viewing that the company has spun off a website just to accommodate them( www.willitblend.com ). But let’s start with the cutting edge stuff. The Will it Blend idea is using the web as its main medium.

Its message is spread by people who want their friends to see how bonkers Dickson is and because it makes them laugh. The fact that his blender is so powerful it will blend pretty well anything that can be crammed into it is secondary to the entertainment value of the films. Secondary but not unnoticed. The message could not be clearer: the Blendtec is one tough machine.

Related post: Visual Content … 13 Remarkable Marketing Examples to Study

Consider all of the channels for advertising, too. Having several ads across many different networks is the best way to attract as many fans as possible to your cause. By marketing all channels at once, the hope is that the multiple discussions on each network converge to create one giant conversation.

The fact that the ads are almost wholly lacking in what agencies call “production values” does not matter a fig to the YouTube user. All of which is a shining exemplar of effective (and cheap) advertising that is being taken up more and more by brands big and small across the globe.

The Blendtec campaign has set the bar for how other companies and agencies can approach viral advertising, by focusing on the fans first. By striking a perfect balance of content and advertising, and some fact of the matter is, other companies can, too. As of March 21, 2013, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 294,098,738 views on YouTube.

The bottom line

Our world is in flux.  There is no part of the consumer experience that is untouched. Digital technology is disrupting the marketplace, while changes in our understanding of the psychology of decision making have overturned centuries of conventional wisdom. Even a brief summary such as this one can make the challenges seem overwhelming.

So what to do?  First, start somewhere.  It can be one place or the other, but at least start. The change will be unfolding for years and everyone else is as confused as you are.

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.

It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

 More reading on marketing  strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

13 Extraordinary Marketing Lessons from Taylor Swift

Learning from 2 of the Best Marketing Strategy Case Studies

7 Secrets to the Lego Blog Marketing Campaigns … Effective Marketing?

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.