The Peculiar Brilliance of WillItBlend

By Andrew
If you are of a somewhat geeky persuasion you’re likely already familiar with the WillItBlend series of videos. In each video, produced by high-end blender manufacturer BlendTec, something that in normal circumstances would not be blended is reduced to its essential elements in a BlendTec brand blender. The company’s latest piece in which an iPhone is reduced to dust continues a long series that featured iPods, an HD video camera, glow sticks, action figures, magnets, and just about anything else that sounds fun to put in a blender. In each instance the powerful blender performs its task with ease, and each time a huge amount of internet buzz is generated driving tons of traffic to BlendTec’s site.

What makes these videos so brilliant from an advertising standpoint is that each video is essentially a product demonstration of BlendTec’s blenders. While other companies have created internet sites designed to entertain, (for example Burger King’s delightful Subservient Chicken) few of them so directly trumpet the ability of the product they’re supporting. BlendTec’s videos are just a much better and more subtle version of the infomercial. The logic follows that if this blender can blend an iPod, it should have no trouble with strawberries.

With a relatively low production budget and almost no distribution costs BlendTec has managed to introduce millions of viewers to its product. Other companies should take note.