Presentation on viral videos and how YouTube can bring about success for businesses. Blendtec blenders are featured with their YouTube campaign: "Will it Blend?" The Will it Blend campaign directly increased sales by 700% based on a key case study.

1. You Tube, Viral Videos
and How to Blend-in Business
Susan Fant
www.susanfant.com / www.castlesandsllc.com / www.fernweb.org
These Slides are for Educational Purposes Only – The University of Alabama Marketing Department
MKT597: Digital & Social Media Marketing Fall Semester 2013

2. You Tube
• Did not invent video
sharing as a practice
and did not
revolutionize
broadcasting.
• It did put it all in one
place, with an
accessible platform,
and fed a “tribe” or
community of people.

3. You Tube Novelties
• Ranking & Popularity principles rule YouTube’s
platform architecture
• Pioneered  Streaming Video
• YouTube is best known for the following:
– Streamed content
– Uploading video
– Social networking abilities

4. User Generated
Content
• Fits in with the “star
discovery” trend (American
Idol 2000s) and the America’s
Funniest Home Videos
(1980s) franchises.
• User content is becoming
“professionalized”
• YouTube is moving from the
user as a participant to the
user as a viewer

5. Viral Videos and Business
• Helps sell a product in a “non-traditional” way
• Uses the power of videos to tell stories
• Creates a multiple hook connection into
consumers.
• Interacts with the consumer (forced “push”
interaction) and the consumer then spreads
the information through their own networks.

6. Most Recent Example:
Carrie (2013)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlOxlSOr3_M

7. Viral Videos and Quickness
• You have to be ready for the video’s outcomes –
you have to have a website that can handle the
new traffic, be prepared to answer comments (or
have people answering comments for you) and
you have to know that views and reviews happen
quickly.
Example: Carrie (2013) YouTube Clip Posted
Oct. 7th  October 9th (today) has over
19.82 million views

8. BlendTec: Will It Blend?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0sbiSlyKtw

9. How Does BlendTec Work?
• In 2006: $100 in startup
costs
• In 2008: Retail sales up
700%
• Oct. 9, 2013:
– 134 Videos
– 227,685,590 views
– 663,238 subscribers

10. Will it Blend’s YouTube Success
http://www.socialens.com/wpcontent/uploads/2009/04/20090127_case_blendtec11.pdf

11. Analyze: Will it Blend?

12. Blendtec Facebook

13. Blendtec Pinterest

14. Questions?