How Doritos ceded Super Bowl control to its fans—again

Why create your own Super Bowl ad when you can have your fans do it for you?

For its 25th appearance in the big game, Doritos revived its Crash the Super Bowl contest, challenging fans to create their own 30-second ads to represent the brand on the big stage. The contest previously ran from 2006 to 2016, producing ads that sparked directors’ careers and consistently ranked among the USA Today Ad Meter’s top five commercials.

This year, more than 2,000 entries were narrowed down to 25 semifinalists by a panel of judges, then three finalists, which were “Abduction” by Dylan Bradshaw and Nate Norell, “Barbershop” by Zach Shenouda and Ryan Robinson, and “Charades” by Mark Blitch. Fans then voted over two weeks to eventually choose the winner: Bradshaw and Norell’s alien-themed spot will be airing at the Super Bowl. As part of the prize, the codirectors will get an all-expenses-paid trip to the game and $1 million.

“Today, user-generated and creator-generated content is like table stakes,” James Wade, senior director of marketing for Doritos, told us. “The tools are more accessible, that way of operating is more acceptable and expected, [so we thought], let’s see what people of this generation can do.”

Calling all creators

Relying on fan-submitted creations meant that the Super Bowl process started earlier than usual for Doritos, Wade said, as the team needed time to both promote the contest and allow fans to actually produce their entries.

The Doritos team reached out to audiences that it thought might be interested in participating, including indie filmmakers, students in film school, creatives and creator hubs around the country, and influencer networks, Wade said. Promoting Crash the Super Bowl was its own campaign, including a spot featuring Kansas City Chiefs players judging Doritos commercials, which Wade said was designed to “get that crossover with general population appeal and awareness.”

Once word was out, the brand wasn’t involved in the actual production of the ads, providing a brand tool kit with music and brand assets but letting contest participants take it from there.

“There was a lot of desire to avoid that typical interference that happens in creative development and allowing truly this to be consumer-led, and taking the risk with it,” Wade said.

While he declined to share specific budget numbers, he emphasized that Crash the Super Bowl is “not a high-cost program to run.” While the brand invested in media to gather participants, outsourcing production can come with cost savings, although it means leaving creative ideation up to participants.

“It’s been less about the cost and more about that we are giving ownership to what our brand is going to be seen as to other people on the biggest stage,” Wade said.

Judge’s table

While fans determined the ultimate winner, a panel of judges made up of advertising, creative, and brand experts was tasked with paring down thousands of submissions to three finalists. Wade said the judges focused on “originality and creativity, an adherence to the brief, this kind of showing your brand love, and overall appeal as a Super Bowl spot.” And as with many big-game ads, humor and pushing the envelope was key, too.

While it was important to keep the simplicity of the contest’s message intact, Wade said, there was room for modernization.

“So much of the media strategy needed to evolve with the times,” Wade said. “A lot of the use of influencers, not just to help ask and drive interest in submitting, but also in representing the campaign as it was executed, and getting consumers interested. That was a big do different.”

Crash the Super Bowl may end up being about more than just one winner in the big-game slot. Since the contest drew in so many creators, Wade said he hopes to find ways to work with them in the future.

“I want to find more to do with those creators,” Wade said. “Can we go build a relationship with you?”