Client: Millo Appliances
Industry: Consumer Tech / Food-Tech
Headquarters: Vilnius, Lithuania 🇱🇹
Years of Collaboration: 2019 & 2021
Focus Areas: Corporate & Consumer PR
Overview
Millo is a Lithuanian food-tech startup reinventing food preparation for the modern consumer. Their flagship product, the Millo Blender, combines award-winning design, smart connectivity, and sustainable innovation. Unlike traditional blenders, Millo’s product features a silent, buttonless, cordless operation powered by a magnetic brushless motor called the Magnetic Air Drive.
Our collaboration with Millo spanned two major periods: the early stage in 2019 and again in 2021 for their consumer expansion and retail launch. Our work aimed to elevate the brand from an ambitious startup to an internationally recognized innovation leader in lifestyle appliances.
Challenge
The blender market is saturated with functionally similar products competing on performance and price. Millo needed to shift perception from incremental improvement to a new product category entirely. The main challenge was to communicate the uniqueness of the Millo Blender and justify its premium price.
We positioned Millo not as just a better blender but as “the blender, reimagined” — a fusion of smart home technology, luxury design, and user-centered innovation.
Strategic Approach
Positioning & Messaging
We led the development of key messages rooted in lifestyle aspiration, community co-creation, and sustainability:
- The blender. Reimagined.
- Life Value: Smart, silent, safe, and simple.
- Tech Value: First-of-its-kind battery-powered brushless magnetic motor.
- Design Value: Aesthetic-driven, buttonless, cordless form crafted for modern interiors.
- Sustainability: Built to last, packaged with recyclable materials, and designed for a circular economy.
- Community: Co-created with feedback from hundreds of early supporters and Kickstarter backers.
Audience Focus
Our target was the “First-to-Know, First-to-Have” segment: innovation seekers motivated by aesthetic quality, lifestyle signaling, and functionality beyond the norm. Think Apple, Dyson, or Tesla early adopters.
Media Strategy
We mapped out a two-pronged media plan:
- Corporate PR (Funding, Vision, Founder Story, Awards)
- Consumer PR (Product Reviews, Gift Guides, Lifestyle Integration)
Tactics included:
- Launch press release targeting EU, UK, and US markets
- Coordinated founder interviews and background briefings
- Review placements and demo seeding
- Awards storytelling integration
- Press office operations and key message guidance
Coverage Highlights
- EU Startups: €750K raise announcement
- EU Startups: 5 European startups bringing back the pleasure of cooking
- LADbible: “World’s First Magnetic Mobile Blender” Facebook post with 4 million impressions
- Yahoo!Finance: IFA Tech Innovation Award
- Yanko Design: “What Apple would do if they made blenders”
- Tech Talks Daily Podcast: IFA 2019 – Lithuanian Startup Millo Appliances
- WIRED: “Best Tech & Design of 2021” including hard copy
- Trusted Reviews: Millo Portable Blender review
- TechRadar: Millo Smart Portable Blender Review
- USA Today: Mother’s Day tech gifts: Top 10 gadgets reviewed and approved by a mom
- Forbes: “Smart Home Gift Ideas“
- The Spoon: Food Tech 25 recognition
- BBC Click: Report from IFA Berlin 2019
- The Next Web: Productivity tips while in lockdown
- The Guardian: The 20 best gadgets of 2021
- And many more! Including The Gadgeteer, TechRadar, Thrive Global, Air Mail News, The Gadget Flow, Emerging Europe
Overall, Millo appeared in more than 20 international publications, spanning business, tech, innovation, lifestyle, and travel. We’re proud to have taken Millo to the likes of WIRED, BBC, Forbes, The Guardian, USA Today, The Next Web and more.
Outcome
- Tier 1 Media Recognition: Secured coverage in global outlets, validating the product’s uniqueness.
- Category Creation: Shifted narrative away from performance specs toward innovation, design, and lifestyle.
- Retail Expansion Support: Helped to build visibility ahead of retail partnerships with Selfridges (UK) and Amazon Launchpad.
- Founder Profiling: Positioned CEO Adam Trakšelis as a visionary in consumer tech.
- Awards Acceleration: Featured wins like Muse Platinum, A’Design Golden, and SKS Innovation Award.
Millo showed that premium positioning is possible in utilitarian categories when innovation, design, and sustainability intersect. With the right storytelling and targeted media strategy, a product as everyday as a blender became a symbol of modern, mindful living. The Millo blender was an absolute beauty of a product, we personally used it and we wish it well in its journey to the modern kitchens (and beyond) of the world.
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