{"id":4309,"date":"2010-01-05T13:39:55","date_gmt":"2010-01-05T13:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/learning-from-a-blender\/"},"modified":"2010-01-05T13:39:55","modified_gmt":"2010-01-05T13:39:55","slug":"learning-from-a-blender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/planetology\/learning-from-a-blender.php","title":{"rendered":"Learning from a Blender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KevinWill it blend? That is the question.<\/p>

If those words evoke mental images of diced golf balls, shredded iPhones or powdered marbles, you’re one of the tens of millions of people who have watched Blendtec<\/a>’s virally successful “Will It Blend?<\/a>” video series.<\/p>

At a conference I recently attended, Blendtec Vice President of Marketing & Sales George Wright explained the inspirational genesis of the “Will It Blend?” phenomenon: While walking through the company’s factory, he came across a pile of wood shavings on the floor. Since wood isn’t used in the production of most commercial-grade blenders, the sight was unexpected and borderline worrisome. When a few assembly line workers saw his confusion – and concern – they explained that company founder Tom Dickson was testing a new blade design on a two-by-four and that everything would be cleaned up quickly … No big deal.<\/p>

This kind of “testing” didn’t cause much of a commotion in the factory, but George saw potential. Armed with a $50 starting budget, “Will it Blend?” was born. As the series approaches its 100th YouTube upload and 100,000,000th video view, it’s fairly safe to say that the $50 was well spent.<\/p>

What made the video a success? What was the secret sauce? George’s first bullet-point: Obviousness.<\/p>

Of course people want to see a blender face off against a Chuck Norris action figure. Of course they’ll tune in to see you destroy the impossible-to-get-at-the-time iPhone. Of course people want to see why your blender is better at blending than any other blender on the face of the planet. Is that the case? I can’t say I’ve seen any other blender destroy a rake handle:<\/p>

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Taking Blendtec’s “obviousness” cue, I headed up to our H2 data center with a video camera and came back with a video. Do you want to see it? \":-)\" <\/p>

-Kevin<\/p>

P.S. Yes, I jumped when the rake hit the blade the first time.<\/p>

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