I say schizophrenic because they didn’t appear to know what to promote so they went for two completely separate ideas, which for good measure have an intangible link to its target consumer.
Firstly you can win a trip via a prize draw to Las Vegas every day in May. This is the promotion that is being pushed on pack and with TV and POS support. Why Las Vegas you say? Good question… Las Vegas is the home of gambling and the hotel partner Planet Hollywood Resort is a gambling venue. If Doritos isn't targeting kids with a gambling promotion then you have to wonder why it chose Las Vegas?
Secondly it is promoting (but not as hard and not even mentioned by in the press release quote by the Walkers VP) – yes at the same time as the Las Vegas prize draw and yes I did say Dodgeball… do you remember the film of the same name from a couple of years ago with Ben Stiller.
Why Dodgeball you may ask? I asked 20 people the same question and apart from the extremely loose use of the word ball in cheeseball and dodgeball no one had a clue. The pr blurb mentions Walkers "understands the importance of introducing exciting promotions to stimulate increased consumer demand" but if that is true is Dodgeball really the best that it could come up with? A sport unknown in the UK where the only awareness is a film which took the mickey out of it.
On this basis is associating with Dodgeball going to "excite the UK consumer" so much that they were going to be rushing out to buy a packet of Doritos? Failing that is a promotion for a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas the home of gambling going to impress parents and make mum buy that pack of Doritos so that she can see her son go to Vegas and loose his pocket money?
Furthermore it seems slightly bizarre that consumers don’t win a trip to see this one-off event - after all it's being held in Las Vegas - and that the consumer doesn’t get anything by actually playing the game in May. Why not reward them with offers and prizes through brand partners? In fact why not have the Las Vegas holidays linked to this part of the promotion and tie it in to this one-off Dodgeball event themselves?
This all seems very disjointed and thrown together rather than thought through and seamless. All the elements appear to be there but they have not been brought together to make a logical promotion, they have been deliberately kept apart and as a result it looks likes like two completely different promotions running at the same time for no apparent reason other than Doritos didn’t have the confidence just to go down the Dodgeball route. Although this was probably because it realized it was tacky and out of touch with UK consumers who would not understand the reasons Doritos was running this promotion and wonder about the association with Dodgeball and Las Vegas.
All in all this promotion could have been so much better with some joined up thinking and some exciting brand partnerships to bring it life. Surely the word ball in cheeseball could have generated some better creative ideas than dodgeball and it still doesn’t explain why Las Vegas was chosen as a destination? For me it fails on every count and if sales go up it will only be because people are staying in and eating crisps at home, it will not be because of this promotion.
Rating 2 out of 10
Agency - Initials Marketing
.jpg)
.jpg)