You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …
The Product:
Blendtec blenders
The Promotions:
The Pitch:
Yes, it blends!
The Internet has radically changed the advertising game, in oh so many ways. From ad blocker software, to analytics that create targeted advertising, to a consumer base so inundated with advertising they’ve learned to tune it out. But for at least one blender company, the biggest change was YouTube creating a venue where you could air your commercials for free – only catch is, they have to be videos people will actually choose to click on and recommend to others.
And there, Tom Dickson (founder of Blendtec) knew what they were doing. The Will It Blend? series began in 2006, the earliest days of YouTube – back when videos could not exceed ten minutes, banner ads would appear at the bottom of your video, and the idea of “content creators” getting paid would have gotten you laughed out of the room. In that fledgling era, these ads were exactly the sort of thing that could take off.
Each one poses a question right there in its title: will [insert unlikely object here] blend? Just enough to get people curious whether marbles or rake handles or a stack of magnets could really be shredded by a blender. And with most episodes under ninety seconds, they don’t waste much time giving people the spectacle they came for – they spare just enough time to build audience rapport with the jovial host, and to have some opening credits that show some other improbable blends, encouraging people to seek out more videos.
That is mid-2000’s Internet catnip. The series garnered millions of views and, in 2007, a nomination for Best Series on Youtube. The success was enough to keep these ads coming for another fourteen years, with new videos added to the channel up until a couple years ago, with a virtually unchanged format.
I don’t know if Blendtec ever went through the procedure to have YouTube pay them ad revenue, but if they did … well, that’s gotta be the advertiser’s dream, right there.