• by Masha Geller , January 21, 2002

For everyone who wishes traditional advertisers would pay more attention to the Internet as an ad medium, I have really good news.

As AdAge.com reported this morning, Frito-Lay is forgoing its usual Super Bowl ads and tripling its online investment for Doritos this year in “an effort to reach teens where they live on a daily basis.”

Atmosphere, the digital arm of Frito-Lay's ad agency BBDO Worldwide New York created a marketing plan that commits 9% of Doritos’ overall marketing budget to online efforts.

For starters, the company has revamped its website to make it a better vehicle to promote offline efforts. They’re also in the process of developing quarterly partnerships with popular teen websites, and are working on a viral-marketing effort that includes an unbranded "underground" website.

Their target? 12-to-24-year-olds. Cammie Dunaway, Frito-Lay's VP and GM for children and teen marketing told AdAge that the company wants to make sure teens are “talking about and thinking about Doritos all the time, and it is impossible to do that without having a significant presence online."

According to AdAge, Dunaway said that the decision not to advertise during the Super Bowl was driven by the teen strategy. "I'd much rather have continuity with an all-channel media presence 52 weeks of the year," she said.

I’m probably going out on a limb here, but I think this is an indication of good things to come in 2002. If Doritos is forsaking the Super Bowl for the web, who knows what’ll happen next.