Analysis: Doritos CRASH THE SUPERBOWL - Nabarun Dasgupta Integrated Brand Communications, BMK 812 Prof. Kathryn Faubert
Situation Analysis The Crash The Super Bowl contest is an annual online commercial competition run by Frito- Lay. Consumers are invited to create their own Doritos ads and each year, at least one fanmade commercial is guaranteed to air during the Super Bowl. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/crash_the_super_bowl) The campaign of Crash The Super Bowl started in the year 2006, and it has been one of the most sought after contest which occurs every year during the months of January to February for the mega event of Super Bowl for USA and Canada. Consumers and creative aspirants wait eagerly for this once in a year event which takes place for the brand Doritos. The contest every year invites thousands of applications at their dedicated micro-site, which leads to the selection of 10 finalists. Dedicated Facebook page and special Twitter handle #CrashTheSuperBowl guides the responses of every fan and consumers to the dedicated micro-site so that they can cast their votes and help in selecting the winner for the contest. Every year there are three declared winners holding the positions of 1 st, 2nd and 3 rd. The 1 st position is decided on the basis of the maximum number of votes casted by fans and consumers all over USA and Canada, and the prize money for the 1 st position is $1 Million and a dream job of one year contract with Universal Studios. 2 nd and 3 rd positions are selected by the company i.e. Frito-Lay on the basis of the content and the message delivered which is in line with the brand positioning i.e. Doritos For The Bold The prize money associated with the 2 nd and 3 rd position is of $50000 and $25000 respectively. All the campaigns have a fixed slot of only 30 seconds; the 1 st prize winning ad is shown at the time of Super Bowl and the 2 nd and 3 rd spot winning ads are shown in the Super Bowl week. Frito Lay every year creates immense brand awareness and increase in their volume of sales for Doritos by holding this interesting and engaging campaign which integrates participation of consumers and aspirants to design the campaign for one of the most important sporting event in North America i.e. Super Bowl. The best part of the campaign is that for an important and costly spot of 30 seconds which charges $4 Million during the time of the Super Bowl, Frito-Lay with the help of its brand Doritos wins the confidence of the consumers by passing on this responsibility to the consumers and aspirants, and engages everyone from existing customers to new customers as well as aspirants to create that magical ad for Doritos which has already won the hearts of many, since the best ad is selected on the basis of the maximum number of votes casted by the population. This innovative campaign not only creates huge brand awareness about the brand Doritos and increases the sales volume every year, it also integrates different platforms starting from 2
television to digital media to provide maximum involvement of every consumer and offer a complete integrated marketing campaign for the brand Doritos. Doritos Crash The Super Bowl logo used for their dedicated Facebook page and Twitter account for the year 2015 (Source: www.doritos.com) Problem Statement "We want to be more than just a brand that delivered chuckles every February once a year to your Super Bowl party; we want to be a brand that stood for more than just Super Bowl ads." - Mike Quintana, Frito-Lay North America (Source: www.warc.com/doritos Crash The Super Bowl2015) Doritos Crash The Super Bowl campaign only created a huge impact to their desired target market once in every year at the time of the mega event of Super Bowl. Frito-Lay wanted the impact to sustain throughout the year instead of being a once in a year popular contest that created once in a year drive for interest which boosted up the sales. Frito-Lay wants the effect of this successful contest to sustain every year for a period of 12 months instead of being a popular single month affair 3
Business Objectives The objective of Frito-Lay through the campaign of Crash The Super Bowl was to increase the sales of Doritos by 6% The annual sales volume of Doritos increased by 6.9% in the year 2014 and the total value share rose by $60 Million. Another important objective for Frito-Lay was to increase the level of participation and engagement of consumers for Crash The Super Bowl campaign and it increased by 121% in the year 2015 Frito-Lay also wanted to increase the awareness level of the brand and increase the viewership and it got increased by 320% in the year 2015 for the product category of Doritos. The amount of increase in viewership represents the number of participation happened in their dedicated microsite for creation of the ad for the Super Bowl event. It also considered the number of votes casted by consumers and aspirants to declare the winners. (Source: http://strategyonline.ca/2015/01/29/crash-the-super-bowl-crashes-canada/) Marketing Communication Objectives Pepsi Co Foods has been successfully running the campaign from 2006 and the whole purpose has been to engage the consumers to design the advertisement for the super bowl event, which happens to be one of the greatest events for USA and Canada. The purpose of involving the customers is not only to create the brand awareness but also making them a part of the whole journey of the brand itself. The campaign optimizes the AIDA model, since every year Doritos despite having the highest market share in their category for USA & Canada creates a repeated awareness among the consumers every year and the contest always raises the interest level which is reflected by immense participation and popularity of the contest, the prize money and the contractual job for 1 year at Universal Studios, increases the desire within the existing consumers and also creates the desire within the new users who are potential aspirants for the prize money as well as the opportunity. Finally the action gets reflected by the increase in the sales of Doritos every year which remains constant for the year, and finally submitting the advertisement ideas at the microsite, also it creates the desire among the consumers who are interested about the whole concept and see the popular advertisement at the Super Bowl event and follows Crash The Super Bowl page on Facebook and also increase in the number of followers in their twitter account The prize money involved with the creation of the advertisement also makes the campaign more interesting and popular for the consumer, it involves traditional medium as television, however there is a very high involvement of digital since there is a dedicate microsite for Crash The Super Bowl and it gets flooded with posts. The top campaign gets telecasted at the time of the super bowl and the rest of the two campaign are also shown on national television 4
The idea behind running this campaign which also has the most interesting part of contest which actually integrates the entire medium is to not only raise the awareness level of the brand in the minds of the consumers but also invite new customers who visit the site to view the ads as voters. Also the word of mouth from the existing customer helps in inviting new customers to the loyalty loop. The core marketing objective of Frito-Lays is to increase awareness, consumption and retain the top of the mind recall about the brand Doritos in the minds of the consumers. Target Audience Doritos core target is male millennials, and Irving says programs like Crash the Super Bowl promote a kind of consumer interaction that the audience expects from a brand in the social media age, and then elevates it to a higher stage like the Super Bowl. Susan Irving, Director of Marketing for core brands at PepsiCo Foods, Canada. (Source: http://strategyonline.ca/2015/01/29/crash-the-super-bowl-crashes-canada/) Geographic: Countries - USA & Canada Area/Region All Density Mostly Urban Climate All Season Demographics: Age Adults : 30-45 years Gender Male Income >= $40000 annually Occupation Working professionals, Self Employed, University Students Education Graduates and above Race - All Psychographics: An adventurous male, who always admires the lighter side of life Enjoys being BOLD and always ready to sport new things in life Believes age does not act as an hindrance for fulfilling his interest Creative and Intelligent by nature Millennial Male it is the one who would stand out in the crowd, they are living in the digital world, prefers tailor made marketing and prefers to use their knowledge for better career options and accepts challenges to prove they are the best 5
Lifestyle: Loves to enjoy a light snack during work as well as at the time of leisure Active into work, tight schedules and needs to travel for work Prefer relaxing at home during the weekends after a active week Prefers holding house parties to relax with friends and colleagues Behavioral: Usage Rate: High Consumes 3 to 4 large packs of Doritos in a week Benefits: Prefers Nachos over regular potato chips Prefers a bit of spicy flavor with sauce and cream Loves to relax at home watching his favorite sports channel with a light snack Prefers good taste and better quality Loves to have wholesome quantity unlike other potato chips packs which are packed half empty and filled with air Examples of desired target audience as per PepsiCo Foods, Frito-Lay for their brand Doritos and also for their campaign Crash The Super bowl (Source: Google Image Results) 6
Strategic Thinking: Analysis and Consumer Insight The strategy behind the execution of the campaign of Crash The Super Bowl for Doritos is to involve maximum number of people directly or indirectly for the selection of the top 3 campaign every year for the mega event of Super Bowl every year Crash The Super Bowl contest increases the awareness level about the brand Doritos every year which is reflected by the year after year increase in sales volume for Doritos post the launch of the campaign. The overall engagement of the consumers increased by 121%, when you consider the number of unique visits to the Crash the Super Bowl site in the year 2015.The sales volume increased by 6.9% and rose by $60 Million in 2014. Customer Decision Journey Crash The Super Bowl campaign increases the customer empowerment and involves the customer to move from a passive customer to an active customer. The strategy behind involving the customers is to make the customer aware of the brand and have a high top of the mind recall for Doritos in their category of snacks. This process of contest engages the customer to the brand and also invites the new customer to consume Doritos and evaluate the high quality and better taste of it and then take the purchase decision. While going through this process it also motivates the customer to advocate about the positioning of the brand, i.e. for the Bold and invite other non users to the loyalty loop and finally influencing them towards their purchase decision towards Doritos. Consumer Insight Doritos is mainly targeted towards the male consumers who are tech savvy and is active in social media and also has a bold point of view towards life. It is directed towards the millennial male, who is ambitious and participate in the contest to achieve the goal of winning the prize money. It is also for those consumers who prefers creativity, sports enthusiasts, and for those who prefers to be a part of an active event or relax at home while enjoying the humorous approach of Doritos to the real life situations. 7
Brand Positioning Doritos brand is for the creative and intelligent millennial man who loves to stand out in the crowd and be different from the rest. They love the unique flavors and the texture of Doritos and select them under the category of wafers over regular potato chips. The "bold" advertising would rest on a four-step premise: (Source: www.warc.com/doritos Crash The Super Bowl 2015) Position Doritos as the catalyst for making great things happen Keep storylines simple and linear Ensure boldness was funny Focus on romanticizing the product 8
Communication Strategy Awareness Crash The Super Bowl campaign started from the year 2006 and it has been a huge success there on because of its innovative approach to generate awareness by involving consumers to design the campaign for the brand. Interest Designing a campaign for the brand Doritos for the mega event Super Bowl creates the spark of interest among the consumers of North America and Canada. The event of Super Bowl is one of the most sought after sporting event for the region, and the fact the consumers participate in the contest to create the advertisement which would be shown during the time of Super Bowl creates a huge positive hype about the brand during that period Desire The prize money of $ 1 Million for the best advertisement and $50,000 and $25,000 for the second and third spot attracts the millennial male target segment that is tech savvy and intelligent. They are eager to show their talent and creativity and want to be appreciated. The winner also gets a one year contractual job with Universal Studios which gives them the opportunity to have a great break in their career Action Every year the level of participation from the target segment shows how they get involved into the contest with maximum interest. The amount of likes on the dedicated Facebook Page, No of followers on twitter for the #CrashTheSuperBowl and also the dedicated microsite which gets flooded with posts from innumerable consumers as well as aspirants for the contest across USA and Canada, represents the level of action taken for the campaign. There have been 4900 submissions from 29 countries around the world for the year 2015.(Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/doritos-names-first-ever-crash-143700597.html) 9
Creative Discussion Humour Appeal All the campaigns which are created by the consumers and aspirants are inspired by the humour appeal for life. The creative thought which are shortlisted for the finals are the one which are in line with the positioning of the brand i.e. For The Bold. Every campaign had the interesting twist at the end which shows the consumer is romanticising with Doritos and prefers it over anything else For The Bold: Personality Symbol The brand tagline for Doritos is For the Bold, which symbolizes the personality of the consumers. Crash The Super Bowl Campaign gives the responsibility of creativity to the consumers, and all the aspirants follow the positioning strategy of Doritos, which is reflected in their strategy to be different. The personality reflects the ideal target customers of millennial male who is intelligent and smart and can go to any extent to have the Doritos Slice of Life - Crash The Super Bowl campaign of Doritos optimizes the Slice Of Life approach to the creative element of the campaign, where the aspirants and the consumers design the advertisement for Doritos which would be launched at the mega event of Super Bowl. Most of the aspirants create the advertisement utilizing their own resources and captures the humorous aspect of their everyday life and real life situation with Doritos. The top three winners of Crash The Super Bowl campaign reflect the simple aspects of life. The first prize of the year 2015 which was worth $1 Million, ticket to the super bowl event for the year 2015 and one year contractual job with Universal Studios went to Scott Zabielski from USA who acted in his campaign and created the advertisement of Middle Seat for Doritos. Every one of us while traveling get anxious about the person who would sit next to us while traveling in the flight, he used this simple slice of life factor along with Doritos and created the best advertisement for Super Bowl (1 st Prize Winner Middle Seat Ad Doritos by Scott Zabielski, used the Slice of Life tactics of traveling in the flight and anxious about who would sit next to him in the middle seat, http://greatideas.people.com/2015/01/26/doritos-wants-you-to-pick-its-super-bowl-ad/) 10
(2 nd Prize Winner When Pigs Fly Doritos by Graham Tablot of Canada, used the Humor Appeal and common ideology of the phrase When Pigs Fly and created an ad which shows how passionate the consumers are Doritos would be to have it at any cost http://greatideas.people.com/2015/01/26/doritos-wants-you-to-pick-its-super-bowl-ad/) 11
Media Strategy Television Crash The Super Bowl campaign of Doritos, which operates for two months prior to the mega event of Super Bowl every year, finally showcases the top three winning campaigns at the Super Bowl event. Along with the Super Bowl telecast at the stadium the campaign also gets launched on the national television during the super bowl event. Super bowl is the most sought after event for the sports enthusiasts as well as marketers. Every consumer sees and follows the advertisements which are shown during the event of Super Bowl. The advertisements shown are charged at $4 Million for a 30 seconds spot. In Store Promotion - Frito-Lay for the first time in Canada for the year 2015 Crash The Super Bowl campaign promoted in-store merchandising which drove the consumers to the contest website.(source: http://strategyonline.ca/2015/01/29/crash-the-super-bowlcrashes-canada/) Social Media Crash the Super Bowl of Doritos depends heavily on Social Media, since the winner of the contest is selected through public voting process. For the contest and voting there is a dedicated Facebook page also there is a dedicated Twitter handle of #CrashTheSuperBowl. Both the mediums are highlighted by Frito-Lay to invite the comments of the people and also to increase the number of people to follow the event. The campaign runs on the final voting of the people, to declare the first prize winner which gets telecasted on the day of the Super Bowl Event and also the second and the third prize are declared by the company depending on the content and also audience poll. Digital Media Doritos uses Digital Media to the highest extent for the campaign of Crash The Super Bowl, which can only be completed by the participation of aspirants and consumers for the contest of creation of the advertisement every year for the event of Super Bowl. From the year 2006, Doritos has a special dedicated microsite for the contest where all the history of the past winners can be seen; also the site is dedicated to the aspirants for submitting their campaign. The voting happens on that site too where people through various social media platform like Facebook,Twitter, Instagram and Vine gets connected with the actual microsite and cast their vote for the winner. Finally the results of the top 3 best campaigns which won the prizes are also shown on the microsite along with the finalists. The following is the actual link to the site: http://www.magicbulletmedia.com/mnr/crashthesuperbowl/# 12
Executional Elements The purpose of this campaign is to involve the consumers and aspirants to design the campaign of Doritos for the event of Super Bowl is not only to increase its brand awareness every year but also to maintain the top of the mind recall for Doritos in their category of snacks. The tactic which is used highlights the brand positioning of being Bold. Over the years the most popular campaigns for Doritos which has won the votes of the viewers captures the real life scenarios i.e. Slice of Life and associate it with the consumption of Doritos. Humour tactic has been most preferred by the viewers and the consumers. Implementation, Controls and Metrics Frito Lay every year invites several applications for designing the campaign for Doritos through their Crash The Super Bowl contest, and has a dedicated microsite for all the aspirants for their submission, however the company hold the exclusive right for the final telecast of the advertisement and they abide by the rules of Advertising Standards Canada for publishing the posts on their site for people to view and vote. Effectiveness of the campaign can be measured by the level of participation for the year 2015: 4,900 submissions from 29 countries around the world and a record four finalists from outside of the United States and Canada. (Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/02/media/super-bowl-doritos/) After the launch of Crash the Super Bowl campaign the yearly sales of Doritos increased by 6.9%, the sale of Doritos rose by $60 Million on 2014 Pepsi Co always wanted to increase the awareness level of the brand and increase the viewership and it got increased by 320% for the submitted advertisement category Budget The key to success of the campaign is the cost effectiveness of the campaign, since the contest is run for every consumer and aspirant, the advertisements are done with very low budget but is highly effective since the first position is declared by the virtue of voting done by the population. Facts/Proofs (Crash The Super Bowl, 2015) The first prize winner for this year is the Middle Seat campaign by Scott Zabielski from USA, the first prize is given by the maximum number of votes. The total budget for his campaign was $2000 and he won the prize money of $1 Million and a full one year contract with Universal Studios. (Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/doritos-names-first-ever-crash-143700597.html) The second prize went to Graham Tablot of Canada and it was selected by the company since it used the widely used generic term When Pig s Fly which symbolizes the Slice of Life aspect. The total budget of his campaign was $1200. (Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/doritosnames-first-ever-crash-143700597.html) The third prize winner went to Alex Pepper of USA for his advertisement of What Could Go Wrong and he won the prize money of $25,000 and his budget for creating the advertisement 13
which he shot on his own roof was only $80 (Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/14/news/companies/doritos-super-bowl-ad/index.html?iid=el) Recommendations The only problem as stated by the CEO of Frito-Lay North America for the successful campaign of Crash The Super Bowl was it has become a major event which takes place yearly, and people focus on the event only at the time of the Super Bowl. Usually there is a huge boost of sales and awareness at the time of Super Bowl. The most desired stage for Doritos would be to sustain the top of the mind recall for the brand throughout the year. Instead of only focusing on Super Bowl event which is already a huge success, Frito-Lay should also focus on other sporting events which happens in other times of the year to maintain the impact for e.g. NHL for Canada Frito-Lay should also hold constant small contests for influencing the creative talents by holding short contest to design campaign for the brand positioning of Doritos i.e. For The Bold 14
Bibliography Doritos CRASH THE SUPERBOWL http://strategyonline.ca/2015/01/29/crash-the-super-bowl-crashes-canada/ http://greatideas.people.com/2015/01/26/doritos-wants-you-to-pick-its-super-bowl-ad/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/crash_the_super_bowl http://finance.yahoo.com/news/doritos-names-first-ever-crash-143700597.html http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/02/media/super-bowl-doritos/ https://www.warc.com/content/contentviewer.aspx?mastercontentref=4b36ba14-9ebd-499b-a165-712c792660ed&cid=a101722&pub=event-reports http://marketingland.com/doritos-takes-lead-search-crash-super-bowl-campaign-114100 http://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/doritos-runs-two-crash-the-super-bowl-winners/79951 http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/the-men-the-myths-the-legends-why-millennialdudes-might-be-more-receptive-to-marketing.html 15