Top 5 Reasons Why the Hubspot Viral Video Rocks!

When Mike Volpe of Hubspot first mentioned on Twitter and on Hubspot TV that they were producing a “viral video” I couldn’t help but wonder: “What to do you mean Mike? A video is considered viral only after it goes viral. The people decided if it’s viral. You can’t just call it a viral video until it goes viral.”

I guess Mike has a crystal ball. Here are the top five reasons why the Hubspot viral video rocks!

5) The people in the video are real Hubspot employees. There is not one paid actor in the video. The whole production was done in-house. It’s authentic, not Hollywood.

4) It’s hilarious. When the team popped up from their desks to play instruments to accompany the lead singer, I laughed. Come to think of it, I laughed through most of the video. Humor is always one of the best characteristics of a viral video.

3) The Hubspot team did a great job spreading the word about the upcoming video through Twitter, their blog, Hubspot TV and webinars for weeks prior to the event. They created anticipation for the video. When they launched it on the 8th, they likewise spread the word through online chatter.

2) The video has intensity to it. In the opening scene when the boss (Mike Volpe) slams down a command to the cold caller, the mood is set for the video. Throughout the rest of the video the intensity and the action is high. I can really feel the frustration from the lead character in the video. She is passionate about her disdain for cold calling and her desire for inbound marketing leads.

1) It speaks truth. The message focuses on bringing leads to the sales team using SEO, SEM, blogs, Twitter, RSS enabled content and other forms of great content on the social web. This is the absolute truth!

One more reason this video rocks. It ranks #1 in YouTube for the keyword “marketing.”

I guess Mike Volpe knew all along this video would go viral. I suppose the sales staff at Hubspot is pretty busy handling all the new sales leads. Way to go Hubspot!

If you haven’t seen the video, here it is…

Viral Video Pays Big at Blendtec

Yesterday’s keynote at Pubcon was George Wright, the Marketing Director at Blendtec. He told the story of how they have used viral video to exponentially grow their business in the past two years. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a textbook case study on viral marketing on the social web. Here it is…

Blendtec is a Utah Manufacturer of commercial high performance blending products for restaurants. They also have a retail product called the Total blender that uses the same technology as their commercial products.

George joined the company less than three years ago. He quickly learned that Blendtec has great products but didn’t have brand recognition. Great products with a weak brand equals weak sales.

He recommended to Tom Dickson, Blentec’s CEO they do a brand campaign. Tom, said sure go ahead. And btw, your budget is $50. Not $50 per month. Just $50.

George turned lemon into lemonade….

With his $50 he bought:
The URL www.willitblend.com
A lab coat
McDonalds Happy Meal

One day George was walking through the warehouse and saw a lot of sawdust on the floor. When he looked into it, he learned the engineers were running 2 x 4 chunks of wood through the blenders for testing purposes. That’s when a light bulb went on for George!

He came up with the idea to build a separate website called WillitBlend?

The strategy is to provide videos that answer the question “will it blend?” On this website, Tom Dickson their CEO, very casually (no script) answers the question “will it blend?” and puts odd objects into their industrial strength Total Blender (for consumers) while wearing a lab coat and sporting protective eye wear. He blends things like golf balls, marbles, a Happy Meal and one of the most popular is a video blending an iPhone.

Did this strategy work?

Here are some of the results…
- The Total Blender retail sales grew 700% in the past two years.
- The videos have more than 5 million views on YouTube and more than 7 million views on their website.
- They’ve received national media coverage that is equivalent to millions of dollars in advertising.
- The brand strength of the consumer product has increased pull through in their commercial products.
- The SEO value from their videos drives more traffic to their website.

BTW, Blendtec auctioned the blended iPhone on Ebay which sold for about $1,000. Those proceeds were donated to a children’s hospital. That’s awesome!

Blendtec’s viral video strategy is nothing short of brilliant. George says: “using viral video even a small company can have a big presence.”

Using some creativity and a willingness to experiment on the social web, the Willitblend website and YouTube strategy has paid great dividends for Blendtec.

If you’ve never seen their popular iPhone video, here it is: