Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania and bestselling author, published his book “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” in 2013. The book explores what it is that really makes content effective. This question is being asked every day by marketers, how do we truly spread our brand’s story and messages?
Jonah Berger uses the example of Tom Dickinson, founder of Blendtec, a privately-held kitchen appliance manufacturer. Blendtec had the perfect product, an industrial blender, but the brand suffered from lack of awareness.
In 2006, Dickinson hired George Wright, as his marketing director. With only a $50 budget George came up with an idea that would make Tom’s brand and blender famous. He went out and bought marbles, golf balls, a rake and a white coat for Tom.
To prove the product durability, he recorded Tom successfully blending these objects and uploaded it to YouTube. People were amazed! This then led to a series called “Will it blend?”, which is still going on today with 900,000+ subscribers on its YouTube channel. Within 2 years, the campaign saw blender sales rise by 700%.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FruxRFIeDdw[/embed]
This story shows that no matter how small your marketing budget is or what business you are in; your brand’s messages still hold huge potential. The key to making content contagious is the ability to identify what makes your business unique and demonstrating this to your audience.
At Ilex Content Strategies, we act as a strategic counsel to our clients, one that is practical and efficient. We put content creation at the centre of our marketing strategies to drive efficiency, consistency and give organisations the multiple touch points they need to connect with their audiences. To find out more about how we can help you, please contact info (AT) ilexcontent.com.
