[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rofgMueCOqo&feature=plcp]

Last week in my e-Marketing class, Paul showed us a video made by Blendtec, a company that manufactures premium blenders that sell for hundreds of dollars. Tom Dickson, CEO of Blendtec, has been starring in his company videos for years, delivering humor and entertainment for countless viewers by answering one question: Will it blend?

The man has blended iPhones, iPads, superglues, and more things that would make you think, “Why would you even think to blend that? But I’m curious now cause nobody probably ever will again.” For a company that makes such premium products, those gadgets are probably very cheap alternatives for what they would have spend on a full-fledged marketing campaign of the same impact.

He posted a new video today blending both iPhone 5 & Samsung Galaxy S3 side by side. It occurred to me that Blendtec is not just blending whatever gadgets in their hands or just any high-priced items randomly. They have blended roses on Valentine’s Day, skeletons on Halloween, and now they are blending the phones of these two companies, who seem to make the headlines day after day for their rivalry, to tap into another question that has been drilled into consumers minds over these recent months: Which is the better phone?

They are reading into what is most relevant and current to the demographics and making it the topic of the video for maximum impact. I’ve watched many of his videos over the years but never made that simple connection. I guess I just mindlessly clicked on those videos. While not every single one of their videos is viral, many of them garnered respectable amount of viewer counts for its production value. It’s a good example that one can’t hope to create a viral marketing campaign without understanding the target audience.