/Interview/ The brains behind: Will It Blend
25/10/2007 | Filed under Discover > Interview
Will It Blend has turned into one of the biggest viral campaigns of the last few years. We talk to Blendtec’s marketing director, George Wright, to find out how they became internet superstars
.net: How did you come up with the Will It Blend campaign?
GW: Will It Blend has its roots in actual equipment testing at Blendtec. Shortly after I came onboard with the company, I happened upon a room that had wood shavings all over the floor. As I inquired of my co-workers about the mess, they explained that it was just Tom testing the blenders. Apparently, it wasn’t uncommon for Tom Dickson, the CEO of Blendtec, to jam a 2x2 board into a blender to test the durability of the motor, blades and so on.
I quickly recognised that blending a board wasn’t a typical type of activity for a blender. Not only that, but I personally wanted to watch it, and I was determined that if I wanted to watch it, others would find it interesting as well.
.net: Who’s responsible for the concept, including the use of a theme tune and catchphrases, as well as the involvement of social media?
GW: Once the concept was determined, I pulled together our internal video producer, Kels Goodman, and our webmaster, Ray Hansen, and we began to create a strategy about how this should work.
We spent $50 on a white lab coat and a few items to blend, set up the camera and invited Tom to demonstrate some extreme blending. Kels took the footage and created the first episode of Will It Blend along with the music and the basic format. Ray Hansen created the website along with the blog, RSS and the suggestion of what to blend next. Many of the catchphrases simply evolved from the first day of filming. I had determined that the campaign would be called Will It Blend. “Will it blend? That is the question” was an unscripted comment by Tom.
.net: What were your expectations when you uploaded the first clip?
GW: We uploaded five video clips the first day. I knew that these videos were fun to watch. My hope was that our sales group would forward a link of the website to their contacts in the hope that our customers would enjoy it, and hopefully pass it along. We seeded the site on several of the blog sites that we frequent. I expected it would take several months for the campaign to gain traction and begin to deliver significant traffic.
.net: What kind of effect has the campaign had on sales?
GW: Our sale of home blenders has experienced phenomenal growth. Online sales have increased by a factor of five times. All areas of our sales, including commercial, have felt a significant impact as a result of this campaign.
.net: What’s the response been like?
GW: Response to the campaign has been amazing! We have thousands of people that subscribe to our feed, and we’ve received hundreds of thousands of requests from fans suggesting the next blending challenge. We’ve also started to do Will It Blend episodes for other companies. This has turned into a revenue stream for the company. Our marketing department actually generates revenue!
.net: How is Tom enjoying his new-found fame?
GW: Tom Dickson is now easily recognisable as an internet celebrity. In fact, several broadcast stories have been aired about Tom Dickson, the internet star. During his travels, there are always people coming up to him asking for an autograph and talking to him about Will It Blend?.
.net: What’s been your favourite blended item and why?
GW: My personal favourite is the marbles. It’s still amazing to me that you can take 50 marbles and turn them into glass dust. As far as blending goes, it’s an amazing feat. The tape measure is my second favourite. I loved the way the tape measure just exploded in the blending jar.
.net: How do you decide what to blend next these days? Do you go by the rule "the higher the item’s profile (for example, the iPhone), the more suitable it is"?
GW: We do go through the comments submitted by our fans. Many of our blends have been a result of the input that we’ve received. To be honest, every time I go out, I’m looking for things to blend. My wife is sick of me saying, “I wonder how that would blend?”
.net: How do you analyse the results of the campaign?
GW: We track the results on a daily basis. We obviously look at views, comments, overall web activity and of course sales. This campaign is about brand awareness. Articles, blogs and spoofs all add to the excitement and help build the campaign.
.net: Why are the videos on willitblend.com hosted on Revver and not on YouTube?
GW: All of the willitblend.com videos are linked to Revver. There are two reasons. First, using Revver enables us to free up bandwidth on our internally hosted website, saving us money. And second, video views from Revver actually generate revenue. Revver has been great to work with. We also post all of our content to YouTube. YouTube has been kind enough to feature a couple of our videos, and continue to deliver millions of views for our videos.
.net: What’s planned for the future?
GW: We have several additional videos that we’re anxious to make. We’ll continue to do extreme blending live at public appearances and tradeshows.
Comments
paul gilroy / 05/02/2008 / 23:59
where can i get the song on my computer. i really wanna download it.
Mike Touch / 06/04/2008 / 00:55 / http://freeipodsetc.co.uk
It's amazing how something as simple as putting electronics in a blender could catch on. Viral marketing is amazing.
