Really Boring Products That Rocked In Social Media

One of the most frequently asked questions we get while speaking on social media marketing at conferences is “How can something boring be successful in social media?”

Well, there is really no product, service, or topic that cannot be successful in social media marketing if you are willing to be creative. To prove the point I have found four really boring products that rocked in social media.

1. Blenders – Outside of a few geeky modification articles, there was not a whole lot that had been done with the household blender in social media. That was until “Will It Blend” videos ripped onto the scene.

   Blendtec, a blender company, had been putting their blenders through some extreme tests to validate the quality and durability. One employee was impressed by the tests and decided to video tape a few different tests and put them on the internet.

   The result was one of the most viral campaigns to date. Later a “Will It Blend” website was created and they have been blending just about every new gadget that comes out on the market, continuing to stay fresh and with the current trends.

   Here is what might be the first “Will It Blend” video:

2. Taxes – My god, taxes are about as boring of a topic as it gets. It is topics like these that make you want to reach deep into that creative side of your brain and come up with something out of the box… like H&R Block did.

   Meet Truman Greene, who is “down with the Block.” Truman infiltrated social media sites like Facebook and Myspace with sites dedicate to H&R Block. He even shot numerous videos that were published on YouTube.

   Truman’s amassed about 900 Facebook friends and over 3000 on Myspace, all connected to his pro-Block message.

   Check out the “Ode to Block” video by Truman Greene:

3. Milk – About the only really memorable advertising campaign that worked for milk was the various stars with their “Got Milk” mustaches, until White Gold came forth to rock you milk drinkers out of your seats.White Gold, an interactive social media campaign launched by Got Milk, shows us that if your product is too boring, you can spend a ton of money and succeed in social communities. Targeted at the teenage audience on social community pages like Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube, the White Gold campaign has amassed 1,000’s of friends on each site.

   Some of White Gold’s video have received almost 500,000 views, like this one:

4. Urinals – Bathroom fixtures are just dripping with boredom, unless you happen to be lucky enough to use one of the world’s craziest urinals.One very smart marketer from Germany decided to put together a post with all of the weirdest and craziest urinals from all over the world.

   

   The result was over 5,000 Diggs after it hit the front page, http://digg.com/design/Pictures_of_the_Craziest_Urinals_From_Around_the_World

   So hopefully the above examples show that no matter what you are trying to push in social media, there is a way to make your really boring topic exciting and fun.

Brent Csutoras is an internet marketing consultant, who specializes in social media, viral and search engine marketing. The Let’s Get Social column appears Tuesdays at Search Engine Land.