Frito-Lay Canada

Doritos’ “Guru” campaign was a success, but with the young target (13-24) constantly craving new experiences, the new campaign had to feel different. Pop culture and knowing what’s cool is key for youth, and they love to brag and measure how they’re doing vs. their peers. The challenge became to create the most viral video on the web. Until now, you could see YouTube views, Twitter followers and Facebook fans, but nothing aggregated them into one viral score.

The “Viralocity” contest entailed naming a flavour, creating a video, making it go viral and getting the highest score, using a new measurement algorithm that tallied viewership from social media channels. Points were awarded for YouTube views, external embeds, unique referrers, shares, retweets, ratings and more. The bigger the footprint, the higher the Viralocity score and the chance of winning incremental amounts of cash, including a $100,000 grand prize.

To promote the contest, a 45-second TV spot and YouTube homepage buy coincided with the Superbowl. BBDO also worked with Facebook, Google, YouTube, MuchMusic and Astral to reach the young target. 

An Oscars-style awards show showcased the winner and rewarded some of the quirkier, more creative submissions.

During the promotional period, while the category grew at 2.8% VYA, Doritos grew at 11%. The campaign earned more than eight million video views, more than doubled the Facebook fans to over 67,000 and saw a 525% increase in YouTube subscribers. Overall, 145 million media impressions were earned – true Viralocity.