Doritos: The Quest
My Role: Director Digital Marketing Davie Brown Entertainment, digital project design, project & client management.
Produced this digital program for Doritos. "The Quest" was based on a concept developed with team members at Davie Brown Entertainment and The Marketing Arm. Managed all aspects of development from concept through the RFP process, production and reporting.
Engaged the digital agency RED INTERACTIVE, coordinated with the Frito-Lay technology and legal teams, assembled and distributed all creative elements from various agencies, consulted with the brand to ensure strategy, marketing and branding goals were met, and assembled and distributed metric reporting.
[launch Quest site] Enter: "mountaindew" as flavor.
Program Details
Doritos "The Quest": Guess the flavor, solve the puzzles, win $100,000!
"The Quest" was a series of challenges that began online where contestants gathered clues by solving puzzles that unveiled the secret destination city, where the top three challengers met to participate in real world physical challenges. The winner collected $100,000.
Digital: Before the flavor hit stores, an unbranded teaser site was created to engage alpha influencers and ARG players in order to create buzz and engagement prior to the game and flavors being made available to the public.
The teaser site allowed consumers to enter their email address and “wait to be told” as a cryptic countdown clocked slowly down to zero. This incited a huge blog response of people wondering what this mysterious site was, who was behind it, and what would happen when the clock hit zero. Thousands of users registered with the site. [launch teaser site]
The first puzzle in "The Quest" was to guess the new Doritos mystery flavor. Product packing had a simple messaging stating, “Guessing the flavor is only the beginning." These mystery bags were distributed to snack aisles across the country, and the companion website www.doritosthequest.com was launched.
The $100,000 Gold Dorito that went to the winner of "The Quest Challenge".
The first three consumers to solve all of the online puzzles were sent the secret city, [Las Vegas], to compete and be filmed in a series of online webisodes as the hunted for a golden artifact worth $100,000. The competition quickly rose to over 70,000 active players and online groups sprung up across the world with people trying to solve the puzzles.
Packaging: The packaging was a simple black metallic with a series of triangles along the front of the bag. To the average consumer, all the packages looked alike. However, there were three different versions. Each version had a code built into the graphics, needed to solve one of the puzzles in the online game.
Retail Activation: Clues were built into POS displays which housed the new product in stores. Displays varied by store, each providing a different clue applying to a different puzzle online.
Live Event: The three finalists were flown to Las Vegas to compete for the grand prize - a golden artifact worth $100,000. Challenges included being trapped in an elevator at their hotel and solving a cryptic riddle in order to get out; jumping from a speeding boat onto another boat in order to obtain another puzzle piece. The final challenge: repelling down a 200 foot rock face, grabbing clues along the way, prior to a race to the final puzzle to claim the $100,000 golden artifact.
Results: The results for Doritos the Quest exceeded all expectations: Sales increased 200% vs. YAG. Halo effect to overall brand resulted in an increase of 150%
Over 70,000 players registered online and over 6,031,933 minutes were logged
Unique visits were nearly 700,000 (many players chose not to register, they just played the game)
Summary: Doritos the Quest was a huge success, not only from a product and sales perspective, but from a buzz/awareness factor as well. The brand refreshed its image as a leader of innovative product introductions and engaged more consumers than any prior product introduction in the history of the brand.
“The Quest” was recognized with multiple honors including: the W3 Gold Award, a Webby Official Honoree, Promo Magazine Loyalty Marketing Program Winner, and the MI6 Silver Award.