Doritos has always been known as a disruptor brand, pushing against the status quo and setting culture ablaze. But how could they take things to another level with their sonic branding?

Welcome to the world of Chip Hop — an original musical genre, where beats are generated by Doritos bags, the crunch of a Doritos chip is sampled and remixed, lyrics are coded with chip references, and chip hop artists tag their tracks with clever samples. The new Doritos sonic identity system captures the sound of the entire consumer journey and the brand’s unique personality, from the opening of a bag of chips to that delicious first crunch.

Frito-Lay has a history of iconic visual assets such as the Doritos triangle, Lays’ yellow sun and Chester Cheetah. With the consumer shift towards audio-first platforms such as podcasts, streaming audio and voice assistants, Frito-Lay responded by rapidly scaling investment in sound that could tap into culture and reach consumers on every touchpoint.

The creative solution for Doritos was to craft a multi-sensory sonic experience for consumers, that is also as subversive, bold and unexpected as the brand itself. Pushing the boundaries of what a sonic identity could do — or sound like — the creative team invented a complete sonic world inspired by Doritos, unleashing the power of a brand with a rich history of cultural connection.

The world of Chip Hop is a shapeshifting soundscape that captures the entire consumer journey – a crunch, a bowl pour, finger licks – as well as the trademark Doritos secrets, one-liners that act as producer tags. Iconic, recognizable, and distinctly Doritos.

Launched in the summer of 2021 and scalable for every sound-on media platform and channel, the Doritos audio signature is already making a measurable impact with consumers. Audio intelligence platform Veritonic found that 70% of 18-24 year-olds found the identity to be “disruptive,” and overall it scored 23% higher in recall than the benchmark for CPG brands in the US.

“[The team has] done a brilliant job in developing a distinctive sonic identity that truly embodies the brand personality in an unexpected, fun and clever way — like only Doritos can,” says James Clarke, Sr. Director Digital & Social, PepsiCo Foods North America at PepsiCo. “These new distinctive assets are critical to ensure Doritos continues to win the hearts, minds and appetites of consumers in a world where time spent in audio-first environments continues to increase.”