A Confident Brand Steward
Jason McDonell
Director of marketing, Frito-Lay's Doritos
"Doritos" means "little bits of gold," and Frito-Lay hopes it's struck a vein with a new multi-year campaign that will stem a slide by allowing brand enthusiasts to help promote
one of the country's most popular chips.
Rather than having executives react to consumers' choices after the fact, the snack food giant is giving the end user direct
influence. For the past year, the company has employed various media to help consumers marry their personal passions with the corn chip. Last fall, devotees and aspiring auteurs were invited to direct
and shoot a Super Bowl commercial. Executives expected, maybe, 150 entries. More than 1,000 poured in. Viewers selected the winner, which debuted in front of more than 70 million people and ran for
several more months.
In June, Frito-Lay unveiled the "Unlock Xbox" challenge where gamers could develop their own Xbox live Arcade game. The winner, also selected by fans,
will be rolled out as a free downloadable Xbox live Arcade
game in the summer. Another initiative was allowing consumers to select a chip flavor. With Doritos Collisions - two flavors in the same
bag - consumers can take a special Missy Elliott track and mix it with another sound to create their own song.
Behind much of the push is Jason McDonell, Doritos'
33-year-old director of marketing. "Doritos provides a stage for consumers to celebrate what they love," he says. "It's less about user generated. It's more about letting consumers have a voice and
letting them have control,"
he says. "We're going to develop programming and programs that let consumers share their voice and be empowered."
Letting consumers -
many of whom are in the key 16- to 24-year-old demographic - have so direct a say in the company's No. 2 seller (after Lays) could have shaken a less confident brand steward.
"Imagine sitting in front of a room and telling senior executives that you want to put a 30-second commercial on the Super Bowl (that wasn't created by an ad agency). Only an
entrepreneurial-spirited organization would allow that to happen," McDonell says.
Of course, McDonell also deserves credit for championing the idea. "He puts us and our
learning in front of all we do," says Jeremy Tucker, associate brand manager of communications for Doritos. "That leadership gave us the courage to take risks."