nosh nook #131 - monday, september 14, 2009

why frito-lay is returning to its super bowl playbook (link)
09.13.09 - brandweek - by elaine wong

it's football season, bitches! i'm not really one for the football myself, but i actually watched an entire giants game yesterday at a friend's place, so i'm still slightly AMP'D. we went the partially-delayed tivo route, which meant we benefited from a condensed viewing period. that meant no waiting during instant replay or halftime, but it also meant no commercials, so i'm not sure if there were any cool opening week ones. no matter, because it's not even offically ON commercialwise until next week's monday night game between indianapolis & miami. well, at least it'll be ON as far as frito lay is concerned. CAMPAIGN LAUNCH!

brandweek did an interview with frito-lay VP of marketing ann mukherjee ahead of monday the 21st, when frito lay will launch the brand new website for their brand new "crash the super bowl" contest. there's a splash page up right now & i am confident in saying...that shit is both X-treme & inspiring. for those not familiar with it, last year's contest let amateurs create a doritos commercial for the super bowl. the top rated one took home a million dollar prize.

two amateurs won with this amazing commercial. it's friggin hilarious & everybody i showed it to in my office let out a mighty guffaw. i guess that means they hadn't actually seen the ad before today though. this year's prize is five mil & there are some sort of rule changes that make it harder. they have to change it up. frito-lay's all social media savvy & whatnot...although ms mukherjee wouldn't say as much. "i don’t know if we’re savvy. i don’t know how to measure savvy." she said. "what I do know how to measure is engagement." she is PR savvy. i'll give her that.

during the interview, ms mukherjee covers a lot of topics. she gets into the "engagement" part of frito-lay marketing through the story of frito-lay's sun chips, who are converting to fully compostable bags by 2010. they ran one ad, demi moore tweeted about how cool of an idea it was & the word was out. she talks about the fact that she has a background "in religious theology, not in marketing. (she) actually wanted to be a minister...and so, one of (her) greatest passions is to collect buddhas from all over the world." cool. here's what she thinks is the key to doritos' marketing:

"the core of the idea with doritos is these are young adults who want to break the rules and be in control. that will never change. what kind of ideas and entertainment can we give them? what opportunities can we offer to help them discover themselves? whether it’s running a contest for the first consumer-generated Xbox game or giving them a never-been-done-before gaming experience via our interactive haunted house online or a personalized concert in your hand with blink-182 that leverages augmented reality, these are all things we leverage the digital space for because that is where our consumer lives."

well jargoned, ms mukherjee.