2009 PRO Awards: Doritos Unlock the Xbox

Agency: The Marketing Arm
Client: Frito-Lay/Doritos

Statistics showed that Doritos’ competitors were outspending the brand two to one, and its recent messages weren’t breaking through the clutter. Doritos needed to rejuvenate brand awareness within its target. The brand’s 16- to 24-year-old target audience were considered “hyperlifers” — consumers who live their life around the excitement of gaming. Doritos wanted to put themselves at the center of their target’s gaming universe in a meaningful way. Unlock Xbox gave consumers the ability to create their own video game.

Xbox fans designed games and commented on each others’ ideas. The campaign was promoted online, through Xbox Live and in stores. Five game concepts were selected as finalists by an Xbox gaming team, developed into beta versions and posted on the Unlock Xbox site for users to play and vote for their favorite. More than 100,000 people played and cast their vote.

The winner — Doritos Dash of Destruction — was the first user-generated Xbox Live Arcade title, available for free download to the 10-million strong Xbox community. Doritos received extended play from the promotion as Xbox filmed the entire campaign process for a documentary video series featuring the finalists and game personalities, Amanda McKay and Major Nelson.

Doritos Dash of Destruction was the fastest Xbox game to reach 1 million downloads and is the most downloaded Xbox game to date (over 1.5 million downloads). More than 2,300 game ideas were submitted; dollar sales of single serving bags — key to the youth audience — increased in double-digit percentages.