Keeping Up With Super Bowl!

Let’s start with being honest here — I’m not into sports. I don’t watch the Super Bowl. But I am into Marketing and if you told me I had the attention of 120 million+ viewers at a time, I would be thrilled to capitalize on it!

You would think that brands and advertising agencies have their best work up at an event of this scale, but guess what? most brands miss the point. They come up with a great script, then add a celebrity, then make it over-entertaining, then add the product endorsement and then some humor/sarcasm. That is what most ads looked like this year as well. I may be a hard critic but very few commercials caught my attention AND retained it. Today we’re talking about my favorite one. Drumroll please….

‘Abduction’ by Doritos & ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ Contest

Doritos bringing back its ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ contest where they invite fans to create their own Doritos ads and have the chance to air them at the Super Bowl is the highlight of the year for me. The winning ad for their contest clearly shows why Doritos is playing the game right.

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First, let’s talk about the winning Ad

Why do I like this ad? After the first 10 seconds, I wanted to eat Doritos. After the next 15 seconds, I was rooting for the guy to not let go of the packet. I was now longing for that packet of Doritos to be in my hand. The last 5 seconds made me smirk and made my mouth water at the same time. The guy and an alien, eating Doritos together after fighting for it, sharing a laugh. So simple. No exaggerated comic scene or witty humor used by a celebrity to endorse the brand. This was a clear no-bullshit ad for me. Is Doritos my favorite, go-to choice of chips? No. Did I still crave only Doritos? Yes.

What also stood out to me most about this ad was the plainness of it. It had no dialogues, no flashy text to read, and no talking about product features or USPs. The ad does an excellent job of story-telling through visuals and sound effects alone and does not over-stimulate the viewer.

Now let’s talk about the contest

Doritos ran its Crash the Super Bowl contest from 2006 to 2016 and brought it back this year after an eight-year-long hiatus. The contest began in September 2024 and received 2000+ entries. These were narrowed down to 3 finalists and then the winner was voted for by the fans! The creators of the winning ad received a $1 million prize along with an all-expenses-paid trip to New Orleans for the game.

While all other brands tried to make their ads extremely shareable and fight for the most organic reach and earned media, Doritos played a different game altogether. The hype for their Super Bowl ad started not when they released the winner, but ever since they announced the contest. Involving your consumers in what is the biggest ad placement opportunity of the year is not only engaging and cost-effective but also the best content strategy for the brand. An ad for the consumers, created by the consumers, chosen by the consumers. Who would know better? Genius!

The results?

By mid-January of 2025, Doritos had not one but twenty-five unique fan-made Ads that were being shared across multiple platforms, and being voted on by thousands of people. This gave the brand the chance to have a constant, ongoing and relevant conversation with its audience. The contest increased brand awareness and engagement by threefold for the brand.

Why this is relevant for Doritos at the time?

After recently facing backlash in Spain and getting many negative comments, Doritos challenged their consumers to do it better with this contest, in a way that engages them, deepens their connection with the brand and gives them a huge platform with a great opportunity. User-generated content for the Super Bowl was an excellent strategy to regain the trust of their consumers.