There may be people who think it’s no big deal to have their homemade commercial run during the Super Bowl, or to get a first video game design placed on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Web arcade. Doritos has a message for those folks: Let’s make it interesting, then.
The Frito-Lay snack food brand is layering extra rewards onto new versions of its two high-profile talent search campaigns. The third iteration of “Crash the Super Bowl” is looking for not one, not two, but three user-generated TV spots to run during the big game. If the trio take the win, place and show positions in next year’s USA Today Ad Meter popularity ranking of Bowl ads, the three creators will earn a total of $5 million in cash.
And would-be Will Wrights (inventor of The Sims, folks) can pitch their game ideas via video at UnlockXbox.com. This time, Doritos and Microsoft will choose two game ideas for further development by an outside studio. Both games will go up on Xbox Live Arcade and the gaming public will get to vote for their favorite. That winner will win $50,000 and a full-time job as a gaming consultant for Doritos.
The games don’t have to integrate Doritos, says brand marketing director Rudy Wilson — just embody the “bold, intense” spirit of the snack. The last time Doritos ran this campaign in 2007, the winning game, “Doritos Dash of Destruction,” hit the million-free-download mark in record time.
Winning the Super Bowl Crash can also bring more than just a cash prize. Dave and Joe Herbert, two brothers who won the 2009 contest and then won $1 million for placing first in the Ad Meter vote, have parlayed the exposure into successful production careers. This time the pair will offer insider tips to entrants at the Web site, CrashtheSuperBowl.com.
“What we’re offering in both these campaigns is the opportunity to make our consumers’ dreams come true,” Wilson says. “Literally the day after the game, we had consumers online making plans for next year.”
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