Smaller, faster brands are using YouTube to create a broad presence online from relative obscurity. Consider Blendtec. Its Will it Blend? series is hilarious. They test a blender with extreme objects, including a handful of ink pens, golf balls, a crowbar and, as you see above, even an iPod.

The spots to date average 270,000 views apiece and all of them drive viewers to a Will it Blend web site. According to the site, Blendtec even did a demonstration on The Today Show a few weeks ago.

The demos remind me of the classic Bass-O-Matic skit from SNL. Will it Blend host and Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson could just as easily be doing these demos on The David Letterman Show.

Blendtec Marketing Manager George Wright discussed the campaign with Strategic Public Relations via email.

SPR: It’s unconventional for a home appliance manufacturer to take an approach like this. Please give me some background on the Will it Blend series.

Wright: Tom Dickson, Owner and CEO of Blendtec has been performing extreme tests on Blendtec blenders for years. It is not uncommon for Tom to take a 2×2 board and jam it into a blender to test the durability of the motor, bearings, coupling or blade.

When I approached Tom about actually filming these extreme blending challenges and putting video clips out on the web, he thought that it would be fun and quickly agreed. We hoped for good results but we never imagined that it would take off and demand millions of views as quickly as it did. Tom loves to say, “Before the campaign started, I did not even know what YouTube was In fact, when George said we were going to post the videos on YouTube, I said Who Tube?” Now our videos are getting millions of views on YouTube.

SPR: What has the overall response been so far?

Wright: The response has been amazing. Every day, I get calls from people that would like to use the will it blend campaign in a new way. One small example: a police academy in Florida contacted me with interest in the segment on blending mobile phones. The instructor would like to show the mobile phone blending clip as part of the orientation portion of the class, to encourage students to turn off their phones during class.

SPR: What are your metrics for the campaign? Are you meeting them?

Wright: Yes – we track new traffic, unique visitors, web references, media placements, news paper, magazine and television placements. Our results eclipsed our expectations, both in impact, volume and timeframe. The return for the $50 that we spent to produce the first round of videos is staggering. We literally have built a brand for our home products

SPR: Have you seen a direct correlation between interest in the campaign and sales?

Wright: Willitblend.com as well as Blendtec.com are getting an unprecedented level of internet traffic. Even though this is a branding campaign used to drive top of mind awareness, we have already seeing strong sales growth in the fourth quarter for Total Blenders.

SPR: Any lessons you’ve learned along the way?

Wright: Keep it simple, be clear on your objectives and beware of scope creep!

SPR: Any advice to other companies considering using social media to market their products?

Wright: Any time you find yourself saying “that is cool” – or “I want to watch”, pay attention – you may be on to something amazing.

SPR: What are the weirdest objects people have requested for blending?

Wright: False teeth, toupee, report cards are among the ones that stick out. Many people want to see electronics destroyed – mobile phones, Play Stations, iPods and more.

What I love about this is how Blendtec can do what most other corporations simply cannot will not do not do-let go and assume a more human voice with their customers. In this example we can see the benefits of doing so.

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Kevin Dugan is the author of the popular Strategic Public Relations blog. Kevin is Director of Marketing Communications for FRCH Design Worldwide.

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This CEO of a Blendtec puts weird things into his blender.

Today he put an iPod in there.

Yes, it blends! “That’s one smoking iPod.”

Blendtec is gonna have copycats. Seagate’s Rob Pait, who runs marketing for its consumer electronic storage devices, told me today that they are already working on a video where it tests its hard drives to weird things and sees if the hard drive survives (like a jackhammer, mountain biker, etc).

If you want to hear the story behind this highly successful YouTube video series, listen to Rocky Mountain Voices who interviews the guys who came up with the concept. Six million visits in five days.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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Because of what Blend lets Microsoft do: get Macromedia stuff out of the Windows development process.

Huh?

Remember all those “Longhorn rules” posts I made about four years ago? Do you know where they came from?

I do. And I’ll never forget the software development lesson that was harshly handed to me.

Microsofties (before I was an employee) showed me some prototypes of Vista. I didn’t know they were prototypes, though. Later, after becoming a Microsoft employee, I found out that all we really saw were Macromedia Director-based movies.

They looked so cool. Tom Koch, today, and I talked about that MVP meeting where we saw those prototypes and how good they made us feel (almost everything that we saw back then was totally changed in the final release).

This actually was NOT a good thing for Microsoft. Why? Because when you build up expectations and you aren’t able to meet them you look pretty silly.

But behind the scenes things were even worse.

Why? Because executives bought into the Flash and Mirrors song and dance too. They thought what they were seeing was possible.

The problem was, developers weren’t involved. Only people who studied interaction, design, and Macromedia Director.

Problem is, anything you create in Director has to be thrown out and rewritten in C++ (if you work on the Windows team).

That meant a whole bunch of time is wasted, plus it’s very possible that what you are dreaming of is simply not possible. It’s also possible that development teams, that don’t understand interaction design, will change your “experiences” and totally munge things up.

So, could Flash ever be “force fit” to be the UI of Windows? Not according to the engineers who’ve studied the problem.

They needed a system that could be used to design real pieces of Windows, if not the entire UI, and handed off to a developer, or team of developers, without having to have the developers touch the UI at all.

You can see this in my early Channel 9 videos with the Sparkle team (which became “Blend” today).

Blend is based on .NET 3.0, and goes beyond anything possible today in Flash or Adobe products – at least as it comes to the combined design and development team.

I saw how a designer built the original Longhorn clock and a developer coded the interactions behind it using Sparkle in a fraction of the time it would take using other approaches.

Does Microsoft care about cross-platform and all that other stuff? Yeah. But it’s only secondary to Microsoft’s need to make the Windows development process much smoother. The executives never want to go through another schedule slip like they did with Longhorn.

Blend will let the Windows team designers get rid of Macromedia stuff. At least that’s the hype.

How will we know the hype is real? Show me those Vienna prototypes and let me play with them! (Vienna is the code name for the next version of Windows).

UPDATE: TechMeme is all over Expression Blend.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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Google counts links from blogs in its search engine. So, if Microsoft wants to get something higher on Google, all it would have to do is call upon its bloggers. It’s probably the best SEO network the world has ever seen (Microsoft has more than 3,000 bloggers, with at least 500 active ones).

Internally, how does this work? The bloggers at Microsoft have a mailing list. Someone goes on the mailing list and says something innocuous, like “hey, the Expression team just announced Blend” with a URL underneath and there’ll usually be a few dozen posts in an hour.

Don’t think this matters? Well, if you search Google for Martin Luther King, you’ll notice the result set has changed quite a bit from two weeks ago (when a bunch of bloggers decided to “Google Bomb” an anti-King site to make it lower on the list because we felt it wasn’t really the most relevant result that should come up when you search for Martin Luther King).

Anyway, this kind of “blog farm” can dramatically change results on Google and other search engines in a way that SEO’s just simply can’t match.

Oh, and even better, they set the agenda that everyone has to link back to. Yes, even the bloggers will go higher. A search for “Expression Blend” on Google’s blog search shows dozens of bloggers talking about the new name and release.

As to Blend and its chances in the marketplace? More later.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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It is the frame of thinking which allows them to make the most money (don’t spam unless you do it with us and give us insider information on your business). If you are afraid of the consequences then you become risk adverse. But you are rarely going to do anything great if you let fear control your actions. It is an epiphany the day you realize that you created enough value that the search engines need you more than you need them.

Why does the media like to paint a wall between editorial and content when there is none?

Why is Matt Mullenweg so afraid of spam after he stepped his game up a level above anything I would consider doing? Because he feels he has to be for his credibility, especially after botching it up badly in the past.

As a recruiting technique the US government holds pizza parties with 13 year old children, getting them to play video games where the content is about killing people.

“We want kids to come into the Army and feel like they’ve already been there,” said Col. Casey Wardynski, who as director of the Army’s office of economic and manpower analysis came up with the idea. “A game is like a team effort, and the Army is very much a team effort. By playing an online, multiplayer game, you can get the feel of being in the Army.” – The Washington Post

Yet politicians talk about protecting the children online. Do you notice a moral disconnect here?

If you look at a tag cloud of presidential speeches you won’t just find issues that the population find important. You will find some of them scattered in to make the rest of the sales pitch sound legitimate, but you will also find ample amounts of bogus Orwellian language like death tax.

There is no need to repeat what is actually true and believed. Power sources only repeat things because

• they are untrue or misrepresented
• they set a frame of thinking to the benefit of the speaker
• they pull focus from other issues

Why do authority sources hate the idea of openly selling authority? Because if they openly endorsed it then they might not be able to do it themselves, and people openly and honestly selling influence create more value in richer conversations.

Value systems only exist in our minds. The value of asking for feedback is not just in the chance that people give you a better idea, but also their experience and bonding with the idea which turns the feedback giver into a person who is emotionally connected to your brand… which is especially true if you listen to their feedback. The very ability to influence Digg and Wikipedia directly are what make their brands so powerful.

When language is a commodity that is targeted, bought, sold, and repositioned against ever-shifting arbitrary quality guidelines what could be more valuable than asking influential people what words / tags / ideas they relate you to and how you could do a better job of it?

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Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, an ebook offering the latest
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This blog is powered by TypePad so I look forward to taking this for a spin when it debuts.

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Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.

An effective way to use bullets within the heart of your sales copy is when bullets follow the words “you get” or “reasons why.” Since people are always looking for what’s in it for them, this grants the reader the ability to know exactly what they are getting out of responding to your offer.

Also, keep in mind the copywriter’s greatest secret: Long copy always outsells short copy — this has been proven in my own efforts as well as those of other copywriters. However, bullets, especially in long copy ads, help to give the read a visual break along with strengthening the offer.

Features Versus Benefits

Here’s an example. Let’s say you sell an exercise machine called the “Abdominoflex.” You can say: “With your special Abdominoflex Toning Machine, here’s what you get,” followed by a set of bullets that list the various benefits one would receive with your machine. If you list the features, always follow each one with its equivalent benefit. Take the following example:

“With your special Abdominoflex Toning Machine, you get:

- A toning system that provides an easier yet intense workout that will burn off unwanted calories more rapidly and enjoyably;

- A scientifically designed exercise machine that laser-targets specific areas of the body for a faster, firmer, and more shapely figure;

- A compact, lightweight, easy-to-assemble, space-saving tool that can literally be stored under your bed and pulled out only when needed;

A free special bonus videotape (valued at $19.95) offering unique workout tips as well as ways to make the best use of your machine”
A feature from the previous example would be the fact that the machine is lightweight and compact. The equivalent benefit would be the fact that it’s easy to use. In other words, you can store it under your bed, pull it out when needed, and use it almost in an instant, without the hassle or inconvenience often associated with larger toning machines.

Ease-of-use is a feature. The feelings that will stem out of the machine’s ease-of-use are the benefits. This is why bullets based on “reasons why” is so important. In essence, you are telling your reader the reasons why he or she should take advantage of your offer (and do so now). For example: “Here are the reasons why you should buy your Abdominoflex today.”

Magic Words Versus Tragic Words

When describing the benefits of your product or service, try to be as simple and as specific as possible. Even with the headline, the copy, and the offer, use specific descriptions or words. Give detailed benefits and tell the reader what you want him or her to do specifically. For example, use odd, non-rounded numbers instead of generalizations. Odd, non-rounded numbers are more credible and have pulled more than even or rounded numbers.

For example, “Amazing new system helped me earn $3,956.75 in 29 days!” is much more credible than simply “$4,000 in 1 month!” That’s why, for example, Ivory is 99 and 44/100% pure. If Ivory said 100%, it wouldn’t have been as believable. If one of your benefits states that your offer helped to improve the results of over 1,000 people, use 1,163 people instead.

With your bulleted benefits, use “you,” “your,” and “yours” rather than “I,” “us,” “our,” or “we.” Implicate the reader and infer that he or she has already responded to your offer. Present your benefits as though your prospects are already enjoying them, in other words.

Here are some words you should use or emphasize when describing benefits. They are called magic words, such as: Free, new, you, discover, save, sales, guaranteed, introducing, money, results, benefits, easy, proven, love, alternative, now, win, gain, happy, trustworthy, beautiful, comfortable, proud, healthy, safe, right, security, winnings, fun, value, advice, wanted, announcing, people, and why. Use picture words as well so that people can easily visualize and understand the benefits of your offer. (For more on the use of picture words, see http://SuccessDoctor.com/articles/article6.htm

On the other hand, tragic words are: Buy, purchase, obligation, failure, bad, sell, loss, liability, difficult, wrong, decision, deal, hard, death, order, fail, cost, worry, and contract. Essentially, avoid negative words or words that could potentially negate the positive effect (and the effectiveness) of your benefits.

In conclusion, by clustering and focusing on specific benefits through the use of bullets, and by using magic words that positively impact the reader, your chances of a greater response to your offer will multiply exponentially.

Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter and consultant dedicated to turning sales messages into powerful magnets. Get a free copy of his book, “The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning,” when you subscribe to his free monthly ezine, “The Profit Pill.” See http://SuccessDoctor.com/ now!