Don’t be a boob, get on YouTube
Who would have thought that putting an iPhone in a blender would mean big business for a small company.
But that’s just what happened.
Blendtec , a blender maker with a 190 employees, has become a sensation on YouTube, and it’s all because the firm decided to put videos on the video sharing site of a guy blending outrageous things in Blendtec blenders to show the world how well they work.
This video of an iPhone meeting an untimely demise has gotten millions of hits:
Now, I’m a little worried this video will give my husband some bad ideas. He’s been ruing the day
I got my iPhone because now I work 24/7 . But I just had to share this marketing phenomenon with you.
Why? Because it’s an easy way for you entrepreneurs out there to do inexpensive marketing of your products or services.
For Blendtec, it’s paid off big time.
“Sales on the web are up 500 percent since we started this,” says Jeff Robe, director marketing for the firm.
The campaign was the brainchild of the former marketing director George Wright who found out that the CEO of the company was privately blending an array of weird things in order to test out his products. Wright figured others would enjoy the spectacle and whammo, the YouTube blending extravaganza and the "
willitblend " website were born.
About 63 videos have been made, at a cost of about $50 each, and the items that have fallen into Blendtec’s blender clutches, besides the poor iPhone, include golf balls, a Big Mac, and a broom handle, to name a few.
“Someone with a small budget can get out there and expose their brand in a way that was never possible before,” marvels Robe.
According to comScore, a digital data company, 75 percent of Internet users in the United States watched videos online in November, averaging more than 3 hours of video watching per person during that month. That translates into 9.5 billion videos being viewed online in November.
Google sites, including YouTube, were at the top of the list, with 3 billion videos viewed.
“This exposes small businesses to a massive audience,” explains Thomas Harpointner, CEO of
AIS Media , an e-business solution provider. “If it’s an ad that’s well done, and it’s at all funny, having a viral aspect to it, then people will share that with friends and family.”
Since YouTube is now owned by Google, he says, there’s an added benefit of having your website search ranking increased on Google as well. And who doesn't want that?
So guys, don’t forget to include the name of your company and your website address on the videos you post.
You wouldn’t want consumers blending up an iPhone in some other company’s blender.
