Tom Dickson, the star of the most famous series of viral marketing videos ever and the founder and CEO of the company Blendtec, explains where the idea for his videos came from and how they've had a dramatic impact on sales.
Tom Dickson is the star of the world’s most famous viral marketing video series Will It Blend? Long before the Will It Blend? series exploded on YouTube, Tom was blending 2x2s with his blenders to determine their capability. As an engineer and inventor, Tom grew up putting big engines in little things. His entrepreneurial career started in 1975 at age 29. After experimenting with sending hard wheat through a vacuum, Tom produced The Kitchen Mill. This eight-pound mill produced flour twice as fast and twice as fine than its 60-pound predecessor, the stonemill, and revolutionised the home grain milling industry.
His innovations didn’t stop with one success. As an inventor, Tom’s drive to simplify people’s lives led him to design the Mix and Blend: an all-in-one kitchen machine with a mixer and a blender built-in. This machine can mix four times as much dough as its nearest competitor. Because the blender on the Mix and Blend outperformed most commercial blenders of the time, Tom further improved on this platform to create one of his finest inventions to date: The Total Blender. Since the early 90s when there was a need for high-power blenders in smoothie shops, Tom has continued to improve on his invention.
As an engineer, Tom has been blending crazy things in his blenders for years. In October 2006 some of Tom’s extreme blends were captured on film and they became a viral sensation. Since then, Tom has become an Internet celebrity with his whacky extreme blending videos seen on WillItBlend.com and YouTube. Seen by more than half a billion people around the world, Tom has become an icon and has been featured on many local and national news and entertainment programs, newspapers, magazines and blogs. Tom is still innovating, continues to sit on multiple boards, and has received many accolades and awards for his inventions and his impact on the industry.
Blendtec today has more than 270 employees and is a privately held company. Blendtec is the leading manufacturer of innovative blending and dispensing equipment that is used daily in homes and in the most prestigious restaurants and smoothie shops around the world. If you’ve ever had a smoothie from a high-powered blender, odds are it was a Blendtec. Listen is as Tim Reid has a very revealing fireside chat with this amazing fellow. Tom takes us deep inside the Will It Blend tent, explaining where the idea came from, how it’s had a dramatic impact on sales (it increased sales 1,000% from the first video!), how they make the videos and so much more. This is a wonderful story of a big idea and marketing courage that continues to result in a big pay off.
Duration: 45:57 minutes
Links to resources mentioned in the show: http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/marketing-podcast-will-it-blend
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