We gave gamers the chance to live their biggest dream: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create their own fully produced video game on the Xbox Live platform. On the heels of last year’s successful Crash the Super Bowl campaign — a user-generated contest allowing consumers to produce their own Doritos commercial — we offered consumers the next big challenge: the first-ever consumer-generated video game contest to develop a Microsoft Xbox 360 game.

In addition to the banners, print ads, Xbox Live downloads, PR efforts and in-store promotions, we successfully negotiated the creation of 20 video documentaries that were hosted by popular gaming personalities. Each segment detailed the journey of the finalists in a series-like drama and was accessible on UnlockXbox,com, SnackStrongProductions.com and on Xbox LIVE where users could download and watch on their big-screen TVs.

Doritos sales +13%C&G stores sales +16% +2,300 submissions 580,000 unique visitors 900,000 site visits 4.4MM views +300,000 downloads +10MM users will play winning game online100,000 consumers played betas for an average of four minutes +50MM Xbox Live/Doritos impressions

The assignment for aspiring game designers was simple: Use Doritos as inspiration for the game, thinking about the iconic shape and bold flavors. Thousands of game ideas were submitted and five finalists were flown to Seattle to meet with Xbox development teams to begin working on flash-based, playable beta versions of their game concepts. Each beta game was posted on our custom site, unlockxbox.com, and America was invited to play and vote for their favorite game, ultimately leading to the winner. The broader audience of the core Doritos consumer responded to the invitation in social networking arenas like MySpace, where the message was disseminated virally among Doritos’ 10,000 MySpace friends.

Our specialised expertise in gaming and relationship with Microsoft converged in a game-changing idea that had never been realised before: for the first time, Doritos gave consumers unprecedented access to the Xbox 360 platform and Microsoft professional game designers.

The Doritos consumers (16-24) are masters of multitasking and participate in advertising/marketing when it’s on their terms and not interrupting their precious time. These “hyperlifers” live an amped-up existence of super-multitasking by IMing with friends, listening to music and playing on their Xbox. Our deep understanding of gaming culture led to an insight around the “mod” culture of gamers – they desire the ability to alter/change games to make them more personally relevant and exciting. By giving the “hyperlifers” complete control of their own video game, we were actively engaging with them, but not in an unwarranted, forceful way. Doritos is the catalyst for delivering the ultimate dream for a gamer and this program make the product more relevant to this passion point.