When the pandemic hit, life froze. Doritos' audience of young adults was particularly hard hit. Not only did young adults face disproportionate levels of unemployment, but many were also stuck in-between two phases of life, unable to leave home for college or independent living.

Our brief was to create a platform to reach and engage creative young adults stuck at home without a stage, and position the brand in culture at the same time. All while the nation was in lockdown and any kind of traditional production was out of the question

We would measure the success in awareness and impressions.

CRASH FROM HOME

We decided to bring back life to the brand’s well-known crowdsourcing platform, Crash the Super Bowl, but reimagined to fit the “new reality” for creatives and creators “bored in the house.”

While the original Crash asked people to submit ideas for TV spots, our new program, Crash from Home, asked them to create in their medium of choice—from stop-motion to bite-size TikTok-style videos.

Anyone could participate by answering the brief: do your thing and feature Doritos.

When it comes to traditional advertising, Gen Z has learned how to turn on their blinders. They’re watching less linear TV and are more likely than any other generation to use ad blockers. Instead they prefer emerging platforms where they can create and participate with media, not just consume it. And their immersion in these social channels soared during the pandemic. TikTok alone experienced a 75% increase in active weekly users.

To get their attention, we knew that we would need to move beyond traditional advertising and engage with them on terms with their new reality, being bored at home.

We wanted to find a way to give this pent up creative energy fueling the #TikTokChallenge frenzy of spring a bigger outlet. And to create content for Doritos that felt more of their world than the ad world.

For this particular campaign we targeted online creators and influencers.

Phase 1: Set the stage

We announced the program on YouTube and paid social on 7/15 through an inspirational video full of fan-made Doritos content, in the same vein as what we were asking our audience to create.

Phase 2: Rally the internet’s wildest home content creators

We fueled audience participation and provided further inspiration for what they themselves could create through influencers who posted their own content on TikTok and Instagram and encouraged their followers to participate.

Phase 3: Give the creations a stage

Finally, we celebrated our fans by putting the top entries into a commercial and providing a huge stage for the winners—airing the spot during the first Sunday football game of the season on 9/13. In addition, each of the 15 winners received $10K and an individual call-out on Doritos’ Instagram.

Crash from Home set our fan base on fire:

“I’m here for brands creating ad campaigns with fan-generated content.”

“Is it just me, or are the commercials during the Bills game better than some of the ads during the Super Bowl?! I am definitely enjoying them more. Looking at you, Doritos!”

For a fraction of the cost of a usual Doritos production, the brand helped creators in need while generating significant positive PR (318 million total PR impressions).

Through the campaign we awarded 15 creators $10,000 each.

The online launch video generated 318 million impressions while the final TV spot highlighting the winners generated 4.8 million when it aired during the first NFL Sunday game.