The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2006–2012
Blendtec 'Will It Blend?' turns a CEO-blending-iPhones show into 150M+ views
With a tiny ad budget, Blendtec filmed CEO Tom Dickson blending iPhones; the show went viral, lifted sales and became content brands paid to appear in.
Blendtec
What it had to solve
Blendtec, known for high-end restaurant-grade blenders, launched a $400 home version of its Total Blender but had a minuscule ad budget. The company had long destroyed odd objects in its machines to prove durability — but only for internal demos.
How it works
Blendtec, a Utah maker of commercial-grade blenders, wanted to sell a $400 home version of its Total Blender but had almost no money for advertising. The company had spent years putting unusual objects into its machines to show visitors how strong they were; the breakthrough was deciding to film that demonstration and publish it as a web series instead of buying ads about blender specs.
From late 2006, founder and CEO Tom Dickson — in a lab coat and safety goggles, against a game-show-style set — dropped tiki torches, transformers, glow sticks and golf balls into blenders and asked, 'Will it blend?' The videos ran on YouTube and a dedicated willitblend.com site. When the show blended the newly released iPhone in July 2007, coverage from TechCrunch and others pushed it beyond kitchen-appliance audiences into mainstream internet culture.
The results turned the format into a sales and content machine. The Wall Street Journal reported home-blender sales rose 43% in 2006, and Blendtec reported the iPhone episode alone was tied to about $5M in blender sales within 30 days. The channel's audience and willitblend.com traffic outgrew Blendtec's own site, the videos earned ad revenue, and other brands paid Blendtec to film their products being blended. PRNews later inducted the campaign into its Hall of Fame, citing over 100 episodes, 150M+ views and home-blender sales growth over 700% in a few years.
Why it lands
- The proof was the content: no claims or specs, just the real product destroying real objects on camera, hosted by the founder himself.
- Each episode posed the same question — 'Will it blend?' — making the format repeatable, shareable and watchable even for people with no interest in blenders.
- Blending the iPhone days after its release piggybacked on product hype, so technology media covered an appliance maker as a culture story.
- A tiny, consistent production budget (simple sets, short episodes) meant volume was affordable and the series could keep publishing for years.
What it did
The Wall Street Journal's reporting put home-blender sales up 43% in 2006; by July 2007 Blendtec had made about $18,000 from video ad revenue and companies were paying around $5,000 to have their products blended on film. Blendtec reported the iPhone episode alone drove about $5M in blender sales within 30 days. By 2012, PRNews' Hall of Fame tallied 100+ episodes and 150M+ views, with home Total Blender sales up over 700% in a few years.
What you can take
When the product's proof is visual, let the demo be the ad: a cheap, repeatable format starring an authentic founder out-earned paid media, and the content itself became an asset.
Since then
'Will It Blend?' ran for years and became a reference case for content marketing: a hardware company whose entertainment asset outdrew its own corporate website and generated its own revenue streams, from pre-roll ads to DVD sales and paid brand placements. PRNews inducted the campaign into its 2012 Platinum PR Awards Hall of Fame, and the series remained the model for turning product demonstration into owned media rather than paid reach.
Sources
- Will An iPhone Blend?
- Blendtec – Viral Marketing at its Finest
- WillItBlend.com: Attaching a Value to your Content
- 2012 Platinum PR Awards: Hall of Fame
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