The power of video marketing, a look at BlendTec
Have you ever considered using online video as a form of marketing for your products or services? Most people have at one point or another, yet most will fail to ever put their ideas into reality.
Questions emerge about the cost of producing online videos, ‘will it become viral?’, ‘will it actually help drive traffic and sales to my website?’ and most of all, ‘how has it worked for other companies?’
Enter Blendtec, a company that sells one of the most uninteresting and over saturated commodities in any department store, blenders. To a consumer, blenders are largely all the same – if I told you that I needed a blender, odds are you wouldn’t be able to recall a specific brand let alone convince me via word of mouth that I should buy a particular model. Blendtec however has defied this logic and managed to greatly increase market share and sales via a clever online marketing strategy.
So how did Blendtec manage to revitalise its brand and create top of mind awareness (TOMA) for its consumers? The power of online video marketing
Background
George Wright the Marketing Manager of Blendtec was faced with a tough problem, how was he going to market and advertise a product that consumers were largely uninterested in hearing about?
Firstly, he could bombard them with radio and TV ads and impose the Blendtec brand on consumers in their living rooms or cars, which studies have shown is becoming less affective as consumers become savvier in how they receive and process information pertaining to products. As Seth Godin describes, 'the TV industrial complex is ending', in which marketers used to be able to command the attention of anyone they chose, whenever they chose via these channels. Not anymore.
Instead he opted for a different channel, online video and it worked.
What did Blendtec do?
They began making a series of online videos entitled ‘Will it blend?’. The videos consisted of a number of infomercials that demonstrated their product range of blenders and what they were able to blend. The concept was simple, yet generated one of the most successful viral video campaigns in history.
In the infomercials, Tom Dickson, the companies CEO and Founder attempts to blend a number of items to demonstrate just how powerful Blendtec products are. Blended items to date include; golf balls, iphones, digital cameras, action figures, marbles, skis, matches, thanksgiving dinners and more.
The brilliance of video marketing
The ‘will it blend?’ campaign has become an internet sensation. To date, some videos have received over 28 million views by unique users and Blendtec is positioned to make above and beyond 50 million US dollars in sales for the coming financial year.
Blendtec’s Alexa ranking has sky rocketed, over 5000 back links were created and the company has engaged viewers who otherwise would be very difficult to target.
Production costs? The infomercials are filmed using standard HD video cameras and in turn are very inexpensive to create. The most expensive part of each episode is the actual product they decide to blend.
Wiliam can help!
You do not need a Hollywood budget, nor a script that will earn you an academy award. All you need is a clear online marketing strategy and a few ideas of where you could potentially go.
Combine this with Wiliam’s experience in online marketing and our strong relationships with industry contacts and you will be well on your way to captivating audiences you didn’t even know you had.
Get in touch with us today and mention some of your ideas, we can help you grow them and together define your online marketing strategy that just may be the next Blendtec.
