For the new media assignment our group decided to analyse a social media case. We found the Blendtec case to be extremely interesting and powerful to be shared with the rest of students. The case describes the enormous success, “Blendtec”, an American manufacturer of high performance durable blenders had with the help of Social media marketing.
BACKGROUND
The story of Blendtec, a company founded by Tom Dickson starts in 1975 in Utah, USA. Tom using a versatile vacuum cleaner motor combined it with a rotor and stator micronetic-milling chamber, which helped mill wheat quickly and efficiently. To start the business, Blendtec was provided with the start-up capital by the K-TEC Kitchen Mill. Years later as the smoothie revolution was heating up, companies turned to Blendtec to develop high performing, durable blenders for commercial use (Blendtec 2012).
Today Blendtec blenders are used by restaurants, coffee shops, smoothie bars and domestic households.
Since Blendtec had very small advertising budgets in the beginning, they had to come up with special viral advertising spots that could be found on, or promoted through, social media platforms. The company’s new Marketing Director George Wright found out that CEO Tom Dickson and his R&D Team tested their products by blending up wood or other robust materials (Briggs 2009).
He saw this as a great way of marketing and asked Dickson to do his unusual quality-control technique test on camera for posting the short videos online. He bought some marbles, a rake, a six-pack of soda, a fast-food value meal and golf balls, put Dickson in front of a camera, wearing a lab coat, and asked him to blend the purchases. These series of videos were introduced to the public in 2006 and are known as “Will it Blend?” (Briggs 2009).
The Essay on Media and Social Media Campaign
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ANALYSIS & IMPACT
The video series on YouTube was an instant success for Wright and Blendtec. In the first week of publication they had more than six million hits. Sometimes later the company was granted advertising rights by Yahoo! and Google. Blendtec also used “The YouTube Tags”, which are important video ranking factors in YouTube search results to improve the number of search engine hits (Briggs 2009).
Within two years and 186 videos later, the campaign helped to increase retail blender sales by 700 percent and made Dickson an Internet celebrity. Blendtec has received several awards for their marketing strategy, including Clio Award. The net Award for viral marketing made the YouTube Awards short list in 2007 (Renberg Winters 2009).
Furthermore, Blendtec had several TV appearances, global interviews, print and electronic articles and blog entries or co-promotions (Nike, google or AT&T) (Briggs, C. 2009).
After the enormous success of their viral videos on YouTube, Blendtec created their own website with the “Will it Blend?” videos. This microsite is a very active website, where the consumer get totally involved. The aim is to show the clients what the machines are able to blend and how powerful they are through humorous but authentic ways. Videos on this website are also published via Facebook, which nearly has 25 000 followers (Facebook 2012).
This platform provides interaction and communication between the company and the customers. The FanPage is more informal and motivates the consumer to recommend things Dickson can blend up. Beside Facebook, Blendtec also has a Twitter account which accounts nearly 10 000 followers (Twitter 2012).
The most important social media channel is still their YouTube channel. Since 2006 the Blendtec channel registered very successful hits and click rates especially the “iPhone” video, which reached more than 10 million hits at that time (Youtube 2012).
The Business plan on Ad Campaign Dell Consumer Market
Can't find it here? Try Collegiate Care dell ad campaign By: bill The biggest area of expansion for Dell is the consumer market. In order to develop more sales in this market Dell needs to focus more advertising on the needs and wants of the consumer. Currently Dell promotes its direct model, which is a key factor Dell needs to create a better position for itself in the consumer market. With all ...
Thus shows an enormous interest by consumers.
COMPARISON/SIMILARITY
In recent times there have been a number of successful viral campaigns. Traditionally marketers would develop advertisements and then rely on television and print distribution channels that could be expensive. Viral campaigns create hype that enables consumers to spread the campaign on their own, such as Old Spice (“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”), Tourism Queensland (“The best job ever”), Blendtec (“Will it blend?”), Nike (“The Kobe Bryant Jump)”, Quicksilver (“Dynamite Surfing”) and Samsung (“Sheep Art”) (ProspectMX 2012).
The key theme for all the successful campaigns are that it was real people doing extraordinary things that made the consumer ask, “Is that for real?” There were no special scene artifacts or digital editing. All the consumers can see is, ordinary people doing something that they could also do but never thought of it.
In the case of Nike using Kobe Bryant the famous basketball player, the campaign demonstrated how talented the basketball players are. The video shows how they jump over anything, such as a car and a pool full of snakes. The campaign has 2.5 million viewers (ProspectMX 2012).
Another successful campaign was Tourism Queensland which fired its two marketing specialists and put their salaries together to fund “The best job ever” campaign. A lucky winner get paid $150 000 to live in the Great Barrier Reef Islands and to blog about their experience on the Island (ProspectMX 2012).
KEY LESSONS FROM THE ASSIGNMENT
The key points is obviously a low budget production but the success showed that advertising via social media doesn’t need to be expensive or professional as long as the spot reaches the target group in a suitable way and creates brand awareness. But why was this low-budget production so successful? One of the most important factors of online success is the authenticity. All consumers have to watch advertisements that are full of unrealistic situations and illusions. The authenticity of the blender and the CEO, as the main character, makes the videos so special. There is no fake, no illusory world. It’s reality.
The next factor is the surprise effect. Nobody knows what a blended iPhone looks like. It is a surprise and fun and it satisfies the carving for sensations every person has. This combination amazes many people, which again leads to the fact that they spread the video because they want their friends also to see something like that.
The Essay on Marketing With Online Shopping And Advertising
Introduction In this century, many believe technology will triple. This means that we will have more technological advances than in the past. We already have the ability to buy groceries, cars, clothing, and even houses without going anywhere. This remarkable invention is know to us as the internet. Billions of U. S. dollars is spent on online advertising and shopping every year. This is because ...
Another factor of Blendtec’s success was the involvement of their consumers. They allowed their customer base to participate into the process by asking them what they want to see in the blenders.
The social media marketing campaign of Blendtec also worked because the company aligned the campaign to the companies’ brand and their strategy. They knew their available resources and matched them perfectly with an unconventional idea. And that is exactly how viral marketing works. Thus, stand out in the right way to attract people and do it without fakes is one of the most important lessons for the right usage of social media marketing. Hence, everything is possible if it is done in the right way.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Blendtec case is a perfect example of how viral marketing works perfectly. Up to now the FanPages on Facebook are very active and the “Will it Blend?” microsite has convincing click rates. The company still has a reliable Fanbase, which is really entertained by the highly original “Will it blend?” videos (Blendtec 2012,Facebook 2012).
But the campaign started about six years ago and for sure the company will not be able to keep it alive for the next ten years. Therefore the marketing director and his creative team have to think about new campaigns to surprise their customer. The clients expect new, unconventional ideas, which integrated the customer e.g. by using new media channels.
What we can learn from this special case is, that the companies have to think out of the box. A successful marketing campaign does not always need to be costly or complex. We are all using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on everyday basis. That should make us think that these are the main marketing channels today if we want to reach our target fast and efficiently and more effort should be put on the quality of advertisements through these channels. It is important to integrate the customer base and surprise them in a way that competitors does not. Furthermore, the companies have to make sure that they are authentic and align the marketing campaign with their brand and strategy. Customers do not want to see any “tricks”, but rather caring and involving producers. Blendtec considered these points successfully, hence able to increase sales by over 700%. The presented case is a best practice of how companies should do it.
The Term Paper on Green Marketing Plan – Nandos
The purpose of this plan is to analyse the environmental efforts of the Nando’s Carnegie branch, and to develop strategies that propels them a step closer towards a more eco-friendly and sustainable future. Nando’s was established in 1987 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It has approximately 300 stores in Australia since the brand arrived here in 1990. Nando’s has already taken action to be more ...
LIST OF SOURCES
Blendtec. 2012. About us. Online Available: http://www.blendtec.com/aboutus Accessed: 7 August 2012.
Blendtec. 2012. Will it Blend? Online Available: http://www.blendtec.com/willitblend/ Accessed: 8 August 2012.
Briggs, C. 2009: Blendtec Will it Blend? Viral Video Case Study. Online Available: http://www.socialens.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/20090127_case_blendtec11.pdf Accessed: 7 August 2012.
Facebook. 2012. Will it Blend? Online Available: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Will-it-Blend/39599377192 Accessed: 8 August 2012.
ProspectMX. 2012. “15 of the Best Viral Marketing Campaigns”. Online Available: http://www.prospectmx.com/15-of-the-best-viral-marketing-campaigns/. Accessed: 12 August 2012.
Renberg Winters, C. 2009. Will it blend? Online Available: http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2391 Accessed: 8 August 2012.
Twitter. 2012. Will it Blend? Twitter Account. Online Available: http://twitter.com/Blendtec Accessed: 8 August 2012.
Youtube. 2012. Will it blend? Online Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI Accessed: 8 August 2012.