Doritos is the number one snack for gamers. Unfortunately, our iconic crunch, amplified by a microphone, can really annoy gamers. Squads complain about the disgusting distraction of hearing someone eating. Some even rage quit. Games and lives can be lost in a single ‘crunch’.

We used cutting edge audio technology to solve the problem and created ‘Doritos Silent’, the world’s first AI-augmented snack. Over 6 months, we trained a bespoke AI to recognise and cancel out the distinctive sound of Doritos crunches in real time. For the first time, players were able to download the software and enjoy crunch-free gaming.

Globally, both gaming and snacking continue to grow and, in the UK alone, gaming occasions involving snacking has risen by over 40% in the last two years. And the number one snack brand of choice for gamers is Doritos. Gamers, contrary to the ‘loner’ cliché, are a social bunch. In fact, 74% of gamers claim that socialising is their main motivation to log on, hence the huge popularity of multiplayer games.

Trouble is, with everyone playing with their mates and eating Doritos in the microphone, squads get distracted by the brand’s iconic crunch. Friends get annoyed with each other. A warning about an impending ‘snipe’ gets crunched over. Some of them might even lose the game because of the incessant munching and rage quit.

86% of gamers love to snack while gaming, but it isn’t a perfect marriage. So, something needed to be done.

On-line forums are full of complaints about loud snacking during gaming and how unacceptable many people find it. In the UK, 46% of gamers dislike the sound of others eating. And in the US, 30% of gamers say that other players crunching limits their ability to play well.

Doritos is deeply embedded with gamers, so we were perfectly placed to tackle this crunchy problem. And as a brand, we didn’t want to shy away from helping to solve an issue that was caused, ironically, by our popularity amongst the gaming community.

An avid gamer is playing with their squad, deep in enemy territory. Snipers are everywhere. Online with their friends their an hour into their game and one of the squad starts munching on Doritos to stay fuelled. Uh oh.

The group start complaining about the annoying sound of the crunching down their headphones. No one can concentrate with that noise. With one click, the snacker activates Silent Doritos Crunch Cancellation software on their PC. Instantly, the incessant sound of crunching vanishes, all in real time. Silence reigns.

The squad gets on with the game, talking strategy, without any more crunchy distractions.

[Gun shots]

He’s on the roof, he’s on the roof. CRUNCH. I can’t hear. CRUNCH. Heee’s behind me. CRUNCH CRUNCH. Ahhhhh. CRUNCH. One round the back. CRRRUNNNCH. He’s marked. CRUNNNCCHH. On me. PUSH PUSH. Confo. CRUNCH. Shut up. Whats that noise?! Shut up SHUT UP. I can’t hear. I’m down. CRUNCH. I’m down. CRUNCH. I’m dead. I’m down. There’s three. I’m dead.

You just heard a bunch of gamers battling against a onsaulght of Doritos crunches. Doesn’t sound pretty, does it?

Squads get wiped. Friends rage quit. It’s no picnic.

Gaming and snacking just don’t mix. And that’s on us.

So it was time to do something bolder than ever.

And launch an impossible product . . . just for gamers.

Introducing Doritos Silent. Same bold crunch, but silent.

The world’s first AI-augmented snack powered by Doritos Crunch Cancellation software.

We created an AI algorithm that identifies and removes the exact sound of a Doritos crunch from voice chat all in real-time.

We built an audio driver that was trained with over 5000 Doritos crunches and combined three AI models to remove the input of a Doritos crunch becoming an output for your on-line teammates.

Just download the free audio driver software and it will remove every Doritos crunch, in real time, as you play. It’s compatible on every PC and any game.

You could say by silencing our crunch we made it even louder

Doritos silent. Enjoy the same crunch. Now silent (last word whispered)

Doritos is the number one snack brand for gamers worldwide. Which is a privilege. But there’s a problem. Our much-loved crunch disrupts and annoys other gamers subjected to the noise in their microphone.

So, we decided to pivot and turn this intrinsic snacking gripe into a marketing opportunity and improve both the gaming and snacking experience in one stroke.

Doritos believes in being bold, so we shined a spotlight on our key selling point, our iconic crunch, and used it to start a conversation about a huge gaming bugbear. In essence, we turned our one weakness into a strength. By creating technology that solved a category problem, we not only appealed to gamers, but we also secured more loyalty and credibility within the gaming community.

The buzz generated by the campaign enjoyed 3.2bn earned reach, our biggest global Doritos gaming campaign ever. It received over 250 pieces of coverage, created a +76% uplift in on-target brand impressions and had over 200K organic social engagements. Doritos also recorded a +$50m sales growth.

And the results amongst the gaming community were equally impressive. Interest in the Crunch Cancellation software drove more than 1.8m website hits to find out more and generated over 15K downloads in the first few weeks. And our Twitch Doritos emote was spammed more than 5.3m times!

The campaign drove unprecedented talkability and global PR for the brand, driving commercial success and top of mind awareness. So not only did we enhance the gaming and snacking experience, but we also boldly silenced our biggest asset and by doing so, solved a pain point for consumers that succeeded in making our iconic crunch even louder.

To create the world’s first AI augmented snack, we worked with leading sound engineers for six months, painstakingly crafting our innovative Crunch Cancellation software.

Traditional selective noise suppression works by learning the sounds of a human voice and filtering out anything outside of those distinctive voice signatures. However, this traditional technology sometimes misregisters the sound of a Doritos crunch and lets it cut through the software.

To solve the problem, we had to construct an AI that was trained by listening to over five thousand Doritos crunch noises. The ground-breaking technology used three separate AI models working simultaneously. One was trained to identify different crunch sounds. The other learned how to differentiate human voices. The third model cleaned up the audio of extraneous noises.

This technology worked seamlessly, in real time, allowing a gamer to only hear a fellow gamer’s voice input, without the distraction of a single Doritos crunch.