#MarketingExcellenceAwards PH 2021 highlights: Doritos whets consumers' gaming appetite with AR chip hunt

Doritos products have always been a staple in the Philippines snack market and the brand was looking to broaden its appeal. At the top of its list, Doritos wanted to engage the next generation of consumers. According to Doritos, the largest consumer segment in the Philippines are the Gen Zs, accounting for about 40% of the population. When it came to advertising, Doritos had always invested in premium ads placed across multiple media formats including online.

When the pandemic hit, Filipinos were forced into a lengthy lockdown which eventually led to a rise in online activities, as people are faced with the struggle of being entertained when cooped at home. The activities include social media, online shopping and gaming. Brands likewise rushed to the digital sphere to instantly reach as many engaged consumers as possible, creating a hyper-saturated digital space. As the attention of online audiences was becoming increasingly challenging to capture, Doritos realised it needed an advertising campaign that would cut through the noise and reach people in a new and fresh way to create excitement and drive engagement.

With this in mind, Doritos and Yahoo released the "Doritos AR Quest" campaign, impressing the judges and clinching the gold awards for Excellence in Advertising, Excellence in Experiential Marketing, Excellence in Interactive Marketing / AR & VR, Excellence in Marketing Innovation, Excellence in Performance Marketing, and bronze award for Excellence in Gamification at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Marketing Excellence Awards Philippines 2021.

Challenges 

With a reputation for being the snack for "serious games", Doritos saw an opportunity to broaden its mass appeal and sow brand love amongst a wider range of consumer profiles that showed an interest in gaming. "Whether one is a casual player or a hardcore gaming fan, no game is ever complete without the right snack," said the brand. 

Doritos and Yahoo set out to create an experience that leveraged Filipino’s widespread passion for gaming which appealed across a wide consumer segment including Gen Z. Given the challenges at hand, the advertising campaign, which ran from 5 to 30 April 2021, required thinking creatively and out of the box to find a strong approach that would deliver a unique brand experience and resonate emotionally to achieve the objectives and KPIs. 

Strategy 

Recognising gaming as a shared passion and an authentic way for Doritos to engage and relate with its target audience, the brand knew it had to incorporate a compelling gamification aspect in its advertising campaign. With this in mind, Yahoo's branded content division Yahoo Creative Studios, worked with Doritos to launch a custom-made, interactive AR game - Doritos AR Quest.

Doritos AR Quest was conceptualised around two key insights - the highly anticipated release of the PlayStation 5 (PS5) in the Philippines, and mobile devices as the primary gaming platform for the masses. The release of the PS5 brought cheers and tears to Filipino gamers as massive demand saw waves of pre-orders snapped up, consoles sold out within minutes and waiting lists that stretched into months.

Although gaming consoles were popular, Doritos said that 91% of Filipinos choose to play games on their mobile devices, with 72.1% of their mobile users accessing gaming apps each month. The campaign challenged gamers to a virtual hunt for Doritos chips, shaped in the four iconic symbols found on a PlayStation controller and placed in virtual Doritos packs. Using AR on their mobile phones, players had to pick up the pack which contained PlayStation symbol chips or an instant-win prize. 

Riding on the hype and appealing to the masses, the campaign was timed to capitalise on the excitement surrounding the PS5 and was made playable through mobile phones. Staying true to the PS5 theme, the virtual Doritos chips were shaped in the four iconic symbols found on a PlayStation controller. Promoting the campaign, Yahoo deployed its suite of DSP capabilities, targeting various audience segments that were deemed relevant, scaling up the campaign through precise targeting, and retargeting users who did not complete their conversion journey.

These were executed alongside Doritos’ supplementary efforts that capitalised on the Philippines’ 89 million social media users to further drive campaign awareness. Leveraging technology to strategically advertise a product to current, new and untapped audiences, the campaign employed strong creative thinking to bring a brand experience to life through the rare use of AR for gamified experiences.

Execution 

By combining AR and blockchain technology, Yahoo Creative Studios developed virtual objects that players were able to interact with. To preserve the spirit of the game, the original game mechanics were adapted from a virtual, outdoor hunt in public locations to one that players could take part in from the safety of their own homes while abiding with safety regulations. Using their geo-location, players were sent pin drop virtual objects daily which, when used, would summon the virtual Doritos packets within their location.

To further scale up the campaign and target a larger user group, Yahoo further leveraged its suite of DSP capabilities to boost the campaign’s reach and precisely target different audience segments, all in a privacy-centric way. Ads were served to Yahoo’s first-party interest segments, such as snacks, groceries, and gaming consoles, as well as Custom Audiences, modelled after purchase receipt segments that included online groceries and gaming products. The campaign also leveraged "Lookalike audiences", modelled after Doritos’ existing customer base.

Doritos also supplemented efforts by tapping local gaming influencers on their social channels, in order to build brand love and further cement its “in-the-know” status among core gamers.

Results 

The advertising campaign was widely successful, and reached more than 10 million Filipinos, with over 100 million impressions. According to Doritos, the campaign results also bested industry benchmarks with more than 20% click-through-rate and more than 30% lower cost-per-click.