The “Have Doritos your way” campaign was launched in 2023, to position the brand and develop its notoriety towards the GenZ age group in particular.
The campaign regrouped Doritos consumers in 3 categories, creating a sense of community based on the way you enjoy your Doritos, while inviting people to have fun and express themselves.
3 characters (each one representing a snacker type and with an animal figure associated)
With many creative assets available, a will to experiment new formats, and a primary target in the Gen Z age group, gaming was the perfect channel for this campaign. The plan was designed to incorporate the brand seamlessly into the gaming
experience, ensuring prime visibility at moments when consumers are most likely to consider a snack, thereby aligning with Doritos’s consumer engagement objectives and keeping Doritos at the forefront of consumers’ minds
Studies show that in-game ads in video games capture attention more than traditional online advertisements
Concept & touchpoints :
The idea was to illustrate each character with its “signature” way of eating Doritos → therefore, a static format was not relevant, as we needed an animation/video to show the “way” each character had to eat its Doritos.
As the campaign was targeting GenZ through gaming with a fun and light tone, Doritos wanted to avoid any interference with the fun and the gaming experience → the ad had to be incorporated in the game without interrupting the gamer’s experience.
Format :
An animated in-game campaign : the technical specificities of this ground-breaking format required support from both the creative side and the publishing side,
Delivery :
40 gaming applications were selected, with the goal of generating a significant reach and to span a diverse range of game genres, using assets such as in-game billboards and score screen ads to maximize visibility without detracting from the gaming experience.
Reaching GenZ in a fun and seamless way was key for Pepsico. Therefore, this bold campaign required to work on a product integration that would catch the eye, but not interfere with gaming. From this point of view the technical realisation of the campaign was a success.
On a quantitative perspective : delivery target was achieved, with 1.2 million impressions, reaching both Dutch and French-speaking audiences evenly, with an average View Time (AVT), of approximately 6 seconds, thereby highlighting the efficacy of in-game advertising.
What defines this campaign is the adaptation of the creative to the channel, and its “calculated” introduction in it. We see that many in-game campaigns consist in display assets being re-used as in-game assets, which isn’t always ideal in terms of relevancy and exposure on this specific channel.
This case is a great demonstration of what happens when creative and channel align, making it a best practice.
