My Doritos

Doritos needs help. Or so it would seem, given its constant search for consumer-generated marketing creative.

First there was the “Crash the Super Bowl” promo. It invited fans to submit their own TV spots.

Then there was the X-13D on-pack sweeps, asking customers to name a new mystery flavor. This pulled 100,000 entries and set off a rash of blog and chat-room activity. And now 100 winners are working with Frito-Lay’s research and development unit on new Doritos varieties.

(The mystery flavor? Cheeseburger.)

Finally, there was a contest that sought ideas for a new Xbox videogame design.

Part of Doritos brand manager Rudy Wilson’s job is to sit back and watch. The other is to find new ways to maintain the momentum.

PROMO: Consumer-controlled marketing is sort of like planting a seed and stepping back to see what happens. What do you do in the planning stages to make sure that it will succeed?

WilSon: Our consumers are young adults, and they want great experiences. Once we see what role Doritos can play in delivering those, we talk about best practices and risks. We say, ‘Are we willing to take the risks?’ If we’re going to be in it, we have to be truly in it.

P: Is it hard to give up control?

W: No. We have people who are passionate about the brand, and they’re knee-deep in consumer-generated content. We trust them to deliver good stuff.

P: Why is Xbox a good fit for Doritos?

W: You can do consumer-generated content anywhere, but we always want the biggest and boldest stage. Xbox is the biggest platform out there — it’s the marquee of video gaming, the system your friends are using. That reinforces our branding.

P: What has the response been like?

W: We got almost 500 entries in the first four days. We want to make sure that we continue to have that relationship with Doritos lovers. The magic lies in the engagement, not in the tactic.

P: Why did you structure the mystery flavor promo as a sweepstakes, and not a contest?

W: The payoff was to get the product, taste it and be part of this big experiment. There might be an opportunity to use the name — one of those names could appear on 500 million bags. But the focus of this campaign was a different kind of engagement. The response has been phenomenal, starting with incredible blogs and conversations. People are looking for hints online and on the package — they’re very engaged in the whole concept.

P: What was your biggest surprise in the Super Bowl promo?

W: The number of entries we got. We had an action plan for 250, maybe 300 videos. It blew our mind when we got 1,070. And they were so good we were amazed. The votes between No. 1 and No. 2 were so close, we had to air both spots during the Super Bowl. All five finalists did a phenomenal job. We didn’t want to go without showing that hard work and love on TV, so we decided to run all five spots as Doritos’ ad campaign after the Super Bowl.

P: With that many entries, there had to be some dreck in there.

W: There was only one entry that we had to reject, and not because it was disparaging to the brand, but because it had nothing to do with the contest.

P: What role do agencies play in this kind of marketing?

W: We’re all partners. We know that the consumer is the highlight of what we do. When we heard what consumers wanted, everyone on the team used their expertise to build the experience. For the Super Bowl, the agency gave us the best tools for customers to build their own ads and the words to inspire them. All the team members brainstorm together. Our consumers tell us how they want to engage. Then our team comes up with the best way to do that.

P: What about your internal teams?

W: For the mystery flavor contest, we talked to our research and development guys about how they develop flavors and names. They talked about how much fun it is to come up with names, and we asked them to help us bring that to consumers.

P: Will the novelty of consumer-generated content wear off?

W: I have no idea. I can’t wait to see what consumers tell us next. All I know is that the conversation won’t stop.

For more on consumer promotions, go to www.promomagazine.com