"Will It Blend?"

Have you seen these videos yet:

http://www.willitblend.com/

This is a company who has managed to take a seemingly uninteresting kitchen appliance and turn it into a cult phenomenon. Blend-tec makes this uber-blender, but also creates videos of its president blending different items previously thought "unblendable" (i.e. a crowbar, lightbulbs, and even an iPhone). Their videos are all over the Web now and they're managing to sell shirts to the devoted fanbase. Companies are even trying to piggyback on Blend-tec's success. And now, according to InformationWeek via Mashable, these videos have led to an 500% increase in sales.

Still think alternative marketing can't lead to real results?

Here's the flip-side: Many companies have tried to create "viral videos", with the expectation that they will take off in popularity only to discover that no one cares about their video. That's because these videos aren't remarkable. Social media is driven by a viral spread of information: someone sees something and genuinely is interested in its content, so he/she forwards it along. Just putting a video online doesn't mean it will spread like a wildfire.