The Blendtec Story

Back in 2006, I remember being forwarded one of the videos from the “Will It Blend” series. The basics of the campaign are that they take all sorts of items and answer the question “Will It Blend” by massacring the item in a BlendTec blender.

I orginally thought it was kind of silly to be ruining expensive electronics just to answer the question “will it blend” but after over 200 million views on their Youtube channel, I see the genius in their plan.

Here are a few highlights from the series:

“Will It Blend” seemed pretty silly initially but after looking through a few of the videos, I forever remembered the Blendtec name. Call me a sucker for a good marketing campaign but if I’m ever in the market for a new blender, I’ll probably go with a BlendTec. So there’s success #1, they won my mindshare.

Make something worth sharing.

By allowing users to send in suggestions of what to try blending, BlendTec was able to give their customers a distinct connection to the blender. BlendTec had all the right elements of intrigue and user participation to make their brand an online success.

They found an incredibly creative way to get people excited about a product in an industry that doesn’t typically produce very innovative marketing techniques. I mean, when was the last time you forwarded a fridge, dishwasher or oven ad to a friend?

What they’re up to today.

So how is BlendTec doing these days? Well they’re still making new movies and their Youtube channel is one of the nicest I have seen complete with gorgeous HD videos. They also have an active FaceBook Fan page with a couple of thousand fans where people can suggest new things to try blending.

What’s the Take-Away?

The biggest lessons to learn from BlendTec are: produce great content, put it in the right places and give users lots of ways to connect with the campaign. Give people something worth talking about and they’ll do the work for you.

Have you ever thought of making a video series to spread your message? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear what you’re thinking.