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Client: Frito-Lay, Doritos

The Doritos bag is sleek black, with top secret Manhattan project-esque appeal that immediately captures your attention when set against the brightly yellow and red colored bags on the shelf at the store. The web address for the Doritos minisite is displayed clearly on the bag and, as my curiorisity got the best of me, I made sure to look up the campaign the minute I got home. Doritos issues a direct call-to-action when a consumer visits the site: Get it. Taste it. Name it.

The dark site loaded with the 3D bag spinning as if by electromagnetic force in the middle of the screen. The interior of the Doritos lab, with its industrial knobs, pulleys and levers, reminds me of earlier days spent playing Doom. Users have two options: use the clue generator to uncover details of the mystery flavor, or create an ad using their own voices.

(click to view)From users' first experience with the brand -- either in the grocery store or virally -- to interaction on the site, Doritos attempts to peak their interest as well as get them involved with the brand. The ad generator has already spawned viral spoofs appearing on YouTube, and the difficulty and fun of the clue generator encourages users to spend extended time trying to receive information about the new flavor.

The clear call-to-action, fun graphics and incentive for user engagement results in a successful and sticky campaign for Doritos. So, what is the mystery flavor you ask? I think it's cheeseburger, but don't take my word for it, get out there any try it yourself.
--Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Communications

Doritos has stepped up their game when it comes to creative online marketing; their new site implements sophisticated interactive Flash animation and impressive graphic quality. Upon entering the site, the user is faced with a very sci-fi/underground grunge interpretation of the Doritos bag, floating mid-air along with indistinguishable Gothamesque technology. The consumer is encouraged to identify with the product by either giving it a name or shooting a "commercial" for it. The upside to this is that it encourages the consumer to spend more time getting familiar with/bonding with the product, but the overwhelming downside is that the site is somewhat difficult to navigate, quite dark in appearance, and slightly overcomplicated. For example, in the "Shoot a Commercial" feature, consumers must choose between two pre-filmed segments and then make the extra effort to call a phone number to record their own "audio dub" to be applied to the video segments. I was immediately disinterested.

(click to view)Overall, the concept of allowing consumers to name the product and build its image is great, but isn't that why we have professional marketers? Doritos is relying too much on consumer participation (and sophistication, and patience) for this site to really be effective. The product may still fly when it hits the market if the real TV ads are well executed and the bag design/"mystery" concept is popular among the target age group, but the site seems to be an unnecessary and likely expensive endeavor for Doritos.
 
I'll stick to my Cool Ranch, thank you.
--Britta Hoskins, graphic design and marketing coordinator, SGPA

So, the load time is slow. I grew a little impatient with it as my fiber optic broadband can handle about anything. What was I waiting for that took so long to come in? Was it so top secret that they had to ping my IP address to make sure I was hip, worthy, or not working for the competition? When it did load, a slowly spinning black, no peek-through hovering bag of amazingly thin chips appeared.

As I rolled over the bag, the first thing they ask me to do is name the chip. How am I supposed to name a chip when I have no clue as to what lies inside this bag? Would it be spicy? Would it be cheesy? Or could it possibly be so revolutionary that I might be inclined to name it "Fried Wonton Apple Gorgonzola"? Actually that might be too niche for a brand like Doritos, so I had to pass this first step and try to learn more.

Ah, to the right...the clue generator... a futuristic assembly line puzzle filled the screen. I made it after possibly five minutes of engagement. And what did I get as a clue? An outdoor charcoal BBQ image slid out of the machine. Okay so is it a BBQ flavor? Or a flavor that is cooked on this device? I had to press on for more clues. Second time through was much faster and somewhat easier. Then a print-out of a single serving of french fries emerged. BBQ and french fries... hmmm.

(click to view)Time was of the essence so I moved back to the home screen to find the next area of flavor exploration. It was the ad generator. So, I was supposed to take the clues and make an ad for this new unknown, un-tasted product. In order to do it justice, I gathered the troops at eROI. I assembled the clues, gave an overview, walked them through the site and watched the two ads to choose from. After some quick-witted copywriting we were ready. We settled on "The Perfect Mom." We dialed in to the number provided, entered our secret pass code and started the recording. We sat back when it was compiled, laughed and wanted to pass it on to the rest of the team to enjoy the fruits of our labors. We were presented a form to share it with one other person. And that is when we found the first and biggest roadblock. The link just took people back to the home page, not to watch the ad we made. We could not even embed the ad in our blog or social media page. What a letdown. So we searched on to see if we could get back to the ad. No such luck. It was lost and the time we spent learning about this flavor was to remain part of the big secret.

x13d might remain a mystery flavor forever, but Doritos can take to the bank a lot of new flavor names that might emerge from this site, and plenty of people will talk about it.
--Dylan Boyd, VP sales and strategy, eROI