FROM BOLD FLAVOR TO BOLD ACTION

Doritos are known for their bold flavor. But beyond that, nobody knows what the brand stands for. Without a point of view, it was hard to compete for the attention of a fickle and experience-hungry audience of males ages 16–24. In 2013, we went from celebrating the boldness of our product to celebrating boldness as a mindset, moving from bold ads to bold action.

We kicked it off at SXSW, a film, tech and music festival packed with influential tastemakers with vast social networks, by letting fans decide how bold our concerts got. The Doritos #BoldStage, a 62-foot-tall functional vending machine, was controlled by Tweets, letting fans (way) beyond Austin take part.

To top it all, we put the boldness of unsuspecting Doritos consumers to the test: drop everything—their work, friends and plans—and go to SXSW. Right now.

In order to infiltrate the lives of our target of young males and gain credibility, this idea needed to spill out of TV advertising concepts into the real world, where boldness can actually occur. This would allow us to make content rather than ads. And so the 'Now or Never' concept was born.

We would approach an unsuspecting Doritos consumer and put their boldness to the test. We would invite them to drop everything they were doing and everyone they happened to be with for the chance to go to SXSW on a private jet. Right now.

Once Roarke, our bold hero, had stepped up to the challenge, we had to keep up with the speed of social media. So within 36 hours of meeting Roarke, the content was shot, edited and posted on YouTube pre-rolls, Facebook and the Twitter feeds of celebrities, including LL COOL J and Khloe Kardashian.

For the three days the Doritos #BoldStage was live, over 12,000 social media posts mentioned #BoldStage, making it a trending topic on Twitter. The launch party alone resulted in 7,115 #BoldStage posts—more posts in one day than those for any other brand-sponsored stage (Samsung, MySpace and Taco Bell).

Coverage of the #BoldStage was picked up in print and online publications, such as Billboard and Mashable, and on prime-time broadcast shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

The 360° live stream was viewed in 31 countries, and live broadcast coverage of the event on Fuse TV resulted in over 460,000 unique viewers.

Roarke’s “Now or Never” video received over 830,000 views on YouTube in the first two weeks, making it one of Adweek’s top-10 most viewed YouTube ads of March.

Based on the volume of PR impressions, the #BoldStage is considered to have garnered more success than the first five years of Doritos’s flagship program, Crash the Super Bowl. Not bad for a three-day event.