DoritosGuru.ca

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20090213.RADHOCRACY13/EmailTPStory/Business

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It's crunch time

Frito Lay rolls out a multi-level, consumer-driven campaign for Doritos that promises to do everything but make your fingers orange

JENNIFER WELLS

February 13, 2009

On Super Bowl Sunday, a strange commercial aired across the nation's airwaves.

There was a little toy man in a suit. And a little toy caveman with a club. And little toy men dialogue about making an advertisement and reaping heaps of cash. The closing bit of dialogue was a simple two words: "Chip hat."

It was immensely weird.

"Literally we called that the 'What the f---?' part of the campaign," says Gilad Coppersmith, managing director of media agency OMD Canada. Some after-the-game comments posted online offered those exact words: "What the f---?"

"You couldn't have scripted it any better," says Mr. Coppersmith, who could not have been happier with the consumer response. Nor could his client, Tony Matta, vice-president of marketing for Frito Lay Canada and the point person behind an intricately integrated campaign that, on Monday, will move beyond the official WTF phase into the full-frontal assault phase.

For what, you might ask?

For Doritos.

Commencing Monday the shelves of the nation's C and G channel - that's convenience stores and gas stations - will be stacked with single-serve bags of tortilla chips: plain white bags with a big fat dollar sign on the front and the words "Unidentified flavour."

"It's literally handing over the brand to the consumer," says Mr. Matta.

By that he means the task of naming the new chip - developed in Frito Lay's Toronto lab - has been turned into a contest challenging consumers to not only name the new product but produce a 30-second advertisement as well.

"We're handing them a blank canvas," says Mr. Matta. "We're asking them for their idea in terms of what they would name the product. We're also asking them for how they would promote the product, specifically through advertising. In return they're going to get a piece of the action and we're going to make them stars."

The winner takes home $25,000 and, get this, 1 per cent of sales in perpetuity.

The dough is eye catching. If sales of the new chip keep pace with, say, Bold BBQ or Jalapeno & Cheddar, the winning contestant can expect to receive $65,000 to $70,000 a year for as long as the chip is in market.

What will be eye catching for the advertising industry is the breadth of the campaign's integration.

There's the television spot, airing on Monday on MuchMusic and MusiquePlus, featuring a cat sporting an unsettling set of man lips. The commercial, created by BBDO Toronto, directs viewers to a microsite, http://www.doritosguru.ca, which will invite the posting of contestants' videos. "The breakdown is usually five to 10 per cent are content creators, the rest are voyeurs," says Paul Lin, account supervisor at Proximity Canada, BBDO's interactive arm. To engage those voyeurs the site will invite online voting as well as the opportunity to post online comments.

The Guru microsite is supported by YouTube - which stores the videos - and a novel integration with Facebook. "All the content that is created on the website is automatically uploaded to Facebook," says Mr. Lin. And vice versa.

The product promotion reaches into the gaming universe, with neon block ad placements in 30 game titles, including Spider Man: Web of Shadows, Guitar Hero 4, and rink board placement in NHL 09. The creative is so standout that Mr. Lin wonders whether gaming companies will allow such bright, brazen placement in the future.

On the television side, the level of enthusiasm from MuchMusic and MusiquePlus has been "absolutely key to making this program work," says Mr. Coppersmith. MuchMusic will create "Doritospiece Theatre" spots in which VJs will critique the entries. MusiquePlus has allowed for live cut-ins, in which the product will be featured in live programming.

And on and on.

The target market, says Mr. Matta, is the millennials.

"For us the quality of engagement with the Doritos consumer is critical, and when you're talking about millennials, they react differently to brands. They have a different relationship with brands. One of the key insights from our own research and broadly available research is that their level of engagement is actually quite high."

Internally, this consumer is seen as leading the "hyper-life," so little wonder that the cross agency collaboration, which extends from OMD and BBDO to in-store promotion from Capital C, is engaged in an exercise in hyper-marketing. "At the end of the day we're trying to ignite curiosity," says Capital C group account director Julie Petch, whose team has designed all-black in-store displays from which the all-white chip bags will really pop.

After the contestants are winnowed to five finalists (contest submissions will be accepted until March 18) the contest will ramp up to a final reveal on May 1. A panel of judges is still being assembled, but Frito Lay can disclose that Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh will be among them. All the marketing participants agree: Chris Bosh is really cool.

Ian MacKellar, executive creative director at BBDO Toronto, says it has been more than a year since the creative process was engaged. "We started literally with a complete and empty page much like this white bag," he says, picking up a bag of Doritos. "Very few clients out there really let agencies play."

Tony Matta has been the play-master.

"We feel really good about this," he says of the multilayered campaign. "But at the end of the day, who knows? At the very least we can say we broke new ground."