The Super Bowl represents the largest advertising spending of the year for many companies. And for smart companies, the Super Bowl is an important component in a broader integrated marketing campaign. No company handles this integration better than Doritos, now with its eighth annual “Crash the Super Bowl” advertising contest. This year, the PepsiCo brand is taking an even bigger approach and is opening the contest outside of the U.S. and in all 46 countries where Doritos are sold. The company hopes that the global approach will increase the quality of submission, and of course the quantity of product sold.
The main elements of the program are similar to previous years: two user-submitted spots will air during the Super Bowl; one selected by fans and the second ad selected by the Doritos marketing team. The creators of the winning ads win cash prizes in addition to the chance to work on the movie set of “Marvels The Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
Doritos will again use a Facebook app as the hub of the contest, but will also expand across multiple social media sites, including YouTube and Twitter. The contest opens October 8 – get your team ready to submit!
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- View the contest launch video: https://doritoscrashthesuperbowl.thismoment.com/
- View last year’s ads: https://apps.facebook.com/crashthesuperbowl/
- Discuss in the class the importance of public relations and contests as part of a marketing campaign.
- How is Doritos executing this in the contest? What works? What should be changed?
- Divide students into teams. Have each team develop a creative approach for the contest.
- Give each team a week to develop a storyboard that meets the Doritos guidelines.
- And, if any student team actually submits an ad, consider giving the team a grade of “A!”
Source: Ad Age Daily, Brandchannel.com, 9/12/13
