Moe’s Southwest Grill Takes A Page From Will It Blend, Scores Big YouTube Hit

Lately it seems like I’m always finding a great example of branded content.  If you’re an advertiser looking to make a splash, destroying things to make a point seems to be a good thing to try.  With Blendtec, they’ve blasted off with branded content showing their blenders destroy things you don’t put into blenders, like an iPad.  Recently, Moe’s Southwest Grill has taken a similar route in advertising their restaurants, by showing what happens when we put things we shouldn’t into a microwave.  The video has over 700,000 views since its posting on January 23, and it has given Moe’s its first large-scale YouTube hit.

What Happens When You Put Metal Objects, Light Bulbs, Into A Microwave?

The video is called “Microwaves Ruin Everything,” which emphasizes what Moe’s wants to put out there: that their ingredients are fresh and that their competitors take frozen stuff and nuke it in a microwave.  But they realize that telling you that, or demonstrating that specific detail, would be boring.  How about showing some destruction, something that taps into their inner child?  Of course, my outer child saw firsthand, at 8, what happens when you stick aluminum foil in a microwave, but Moe’s also throws in items like an egg, a bar of soap, and a watermelon (as the video says, don’t try this at home).

Enjoy the show:

Click here to watch the video.

Now, we’ve talked before about how businesses don’t really need a viral video to be successful.  You’re looking for a specific audience most of the time.  But it certainly doesn’t hurt if you can find a way to put amazing content into a video and have your name associated with it, and get views into the hundreds of thousands.  This video will likely get into the millions at some point, but it doesn’t matter.  They’ve reached a sizable audience with this simple video, providing content over advertising, but still getting a message across.

It’s far and away their biggest YouTube video, inviting people in with the promise of something fun to watch, in slow motion, and pretty much forbidden unless you are an expert in destroying things safely.  That’s another thing that gets people to watch: the “forbidden” or “dangerous” aspect of it.  It’s why Go Pro videos with people doing death-defying stunts are some of the most popular videos going right now.

Excellent work to the Moe’s marketing team.

Tags: advertising, branded content, viral, viral video, YouTube