The Hold Out
Doritos Ketchup
Issue 37 | December 2015
Agency
BBDO Toronto
Creative Team
SVP, Executive Creative Directors Carlos Moreno, Peter Ignazi Associate Creative Director Derek Blais Copywriters Britt Wilen, Johnny Pavacic Art Director Bryan Howarth
Production Team
VP, Group Account Director Stephanie Page Account Supervisor Jaya Rizzi Account Executive Mandy Hoeg Group Project Director Jason Dick Senior Project Manager Sarah Ng Group Technical Director Darrin Patey VP, User Experience Trevor Shaikin Developer Nicolas Rivera, Douglas Glover Senior QA Analyst Della Lytle Director, Data Analytics & Insights Curtis Rushing Data Analyst Arpan Rai
Date
Launched February 2015
Background
After a ten-year hiatus, Doritos brought back Ketchup flavoured chips in 2014. They sold out within five weeks. Doritos decided to bring them back again in 2015 but wanted triple the sales of the previous year, with a budget limited to $220K.
Idea
The predominately male millennial target audience (aged 16-24) was asked to give up their single most valuable possession, their mobile phone, to win the world's last bag of Ketchup Doritos.
A mobile game called "Hold Out" was created. The premise behind it was that soon Doritos Ketchup would be gone from every supermarket shelf. But one bag would be held back. Encased in glass on a mahogany base it could be won by the person who pressed the Ketchup logo longest on the mobile microsite.
Of course, when a player's thumb was thus engaged, they couldn't surf or text or even call anyone.
To make it even more interesting, Doritos tried to distract them with texts and messages to trick them into letting go.
Results
In total, over 69,000 people played "The Hold Out" at least once. Average game time was 6 minutes and 45 seconds though the eventual winner held on for 337 hours, over two weeks.
In total, people spent 2,692 hours holding onto the last bag of Doritos Ketchup, equivalent to 112 days.
Sales were up 370% on 2014's figures.
Overall sales of Doritos were up 14.4% during the campaign period.
There was ROI of $15.34 for every dollar invested in the campaign.
Our Thoughts
"If not entirely original, a new spin on the idea", wrote Matt.
If I may add to his comment, my son is a millennial. A classic of the kind and this would appeal to him greatly, the idea of holding a button down on your phone for days on end to win nothing more than a bag of chips. "Ah-hah', he'd correct me, 'not any bag of chips.'
And there you have it. Appeal to the millennial's sense of humour and you don't have to spend big money on prizes.
But then, isn't that the secret of marketing? Demonstrating that you know your target audience well enough to serve them up ideas they actually want to be part of?
Doritos make it seem simple though it is anything but.