Frito Lay has successfully created a community around a seemingly
average product, potato chips. The company has a strong Facebook and Twitter
following as well as a corporate blog called “Snack Chat Blog”. But most notably,
Lays has successfully engaged with its customers through the “Do Us a Flavor” contest.
The “Do Us a Flavor”
contest asks customers to submit their ideas for potato chip flavors and then encourages
others to vote on flavors they would most like brought to market. After the
initial submissions and votes, the company narrows down the flavors to three
and produces them for a limited time to gain additional votes before announcing
the final winner. The overall winner receives $1 million.
The contest is hosted on a dedicated microsite and Lays
links to it through its website and social media accounts. To extend its reach,
customers and fans can share their submissions as well as favorite flavors to
their friends on social media sites. The voting and sharing aspects make the
contest very interactive and engaging for fans.
The contest has successfully gained significant buzz for Lays.
In the first year, 2012, the company saw 3.8 million fan submissions in just
over two months (Mitchell, 2013) and in 2014, the company received over 14
million submissions (Snack Chat Blog, 2014). Not only does the company receive a ton of
buzz from the contest, but it also encourages sales in the process. By producing
the three flavors for a limited time, fans are compelled to try the flavors and
vote. It’s estimated that the contest lifted sales revenue 3 percent (Associated
Press, 2014).
Lays has found an extremely successful “recipe” for the
contest and community (pun intended). The company creates initial engagement
with customers through idea submissions, then continues engagement by producing
the flavors for votes, and once the winner is selected, the company gains
tremendous PR. What more could a company ask for?
When considering the tremendous success of Lays, it’s
interesting that more food and beverage companies haven’t tried to replicate
the program. I’d personally like to see an Oreo flavor contest.
Mitchell, Elizabeth. (2013, February 19). Lay’s ‘Do Us A
Flavor’ Contest: Customers Vote For Their Favorite Chips. AdWeek. Retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/lays-do-us-a-flavor-contest-customers-vote-for-their-favorite-chips/58848
Snack Chat Blog. (2014, October 20). Meet the Lay’s “Do Us A
Flavor” Winning Flavor! Frito Lays. Retrieved from: http://www.fritolay.com/blog/blog-post/snack-chat/2014/10/20/meet-the-lay-s-do-us-a-flavor-winning-flavor
Associated Press. (2014, October 21). Wasabi Ginger wins the
Lay's potato chip flavor contest. NY Daily
News. Retrieved from: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/wasabi-ginger-wins-lay-flavor-contest-article-1.1982424
Hi Sabrina! Great find on this one, I had no clue that Lays had been running something like this for the past two years.
ReplyDeleteThe Do Us a Flavor contest is an incredible idea, and that $1 million payout is a huge incentive. How long does the contest usually run for? Is it for most of the year, or is there a sizable break between rounds? I'm not sure if it would be better in the long run to have that constant public relations presence, or to allow customers a chance to recover from contest fatigue, if that makes sense.
Did you have any stats on impressions from the campaign in total? With a reward like what they're giving out yearly they must be netting a decent return on investment between impressions and generated sales (that 3% you mentioned).
Good call on Oreo, though they might be a little more restrained on flavor types. If you had to run a similar public relations campaign for a different established company (potato chips or something else), how would you go about setting it up and building the same kind of community and buzz that Lays have? Either refining a similar contest, or building a new one to run with?
Thanks for the post Sabrina! Really good info that I hadn't know about at all.
Hi Harley,
DeleteThanks for the reply! To answer some of your questions….
Lays usually runs the contest once per year, but timing may vary. Even though the contest only runs once, I think they do a good job of keeping the buzz about the contest going all year. This year the timing is as follows, “Contest submissions must be received between… January 20, 2015 and… March 30, 2015 (“Contest Entry Period”). The period in which the public may buy and try the different Finalists' Flavors and vote for their favorite begins… August 10, 2015 and ends… October 17, 2015 (“Contest Voting Period”)” (Lays Do Us a Flavor Contest, 2015). Throughout the contest and after the contest ends, Lays continues its promotion and PR efforts to keep the contest top of mind with customers. I think once per year is a good timeframe as it gives customers something to look forward to without being too much.
Other than the 3% increase in sales, in 2012 Lays also had (PR Week Awards, n.d.):
• 3.8 million flavor submissions, which quadrupled expectations.
• 4.9 billion PR impressions.
• more than 5 million consumers had engaged with Lay’s on social media platforms.
Each year the submissions and impressions increased. As mentioned in my post, by 2014 Lays received 14 million submissions. I think the company can certainly consider this a success!
Lays Do Us a Flavor Contest. (2015). Contest official rules. Retrieved from https://www.dousaflavor.com/rules.
PR Week Awards. (n.d.). Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" Campaign Winner. Retrieved from http://awards.prweekus.com/lays-do-us-flavor-campaign-0
4.9 BILLION? That is a crazy astronomical number, and shows just how much reach an ongoing contest like this can have. The $1 million prize payout seems huge at first look, but when broken down (with my quick napkin math) is roughly 20 cents CPM. Even adding in the normal administrative and production costs associated with the campaign that's still far below social media advertising, and way below TV ads. And those impressions are engaged into the contest as well, not just idly browsing.
DeleteReally good research on all of that Sabrina, thanks for the extra stats on the contest's results.
Hi Sabrina
ReplyDeleteI posted my response. Please check your spam.
Thanks,
Alina
Hi Sabrina,
ReplyDeleteThis is just a fun and effective example of a company engaging customers through social media. I had a chance to look through some of the flavor ideas. Some sound absolutely disgusting (Cappuccino), but some seem like they could be addicting (Wasabi Ginger)!
Frito Lays has had so much success with this campaign that they have continued to have the campaign in the U.S. and expanded it globally to the U.K., and Canada. (O’brien, 2014) The company makes a smart choice to continue to keep customers engaged even after the contest winners are announced. Instagram and Vine followers shared their reviews of the finalists, which Frito-Lay aggregated on its contest website and social channels. (O’brien, 2014) The initial campaign was able to generated 955 million organic Facebook impressions and 1.26 billion PR impressions, boosting sales by 12%. (David, 2013)The campaign also connected the experience both online and offline. Following the unveiling of the finalists, the company distributed the first free samples from a Frito-Lay delivery truck which was followed by Uber customers ability to enter a code on the taxi service's app to receive a picnic basket that included the finalist flavor and pedicabs delivery of the chips to tweeters in various cities. (O’brien, 2014)
The campaign allowed the Frito Lays audience to know that their opinion matters, the company is listening, and that they can actually have an influence on the company. (David, 2014) Frito Lays has been a successful and established brand for years. I think this campaign brought new life to the company by using social media to have customers actively participate with the brand. The campaign also proved to be an effective way to increase brand awareness and an increase the buzz among customers, which has inevitably led to a boost in their sales.
I remember Eva Longoria being featured on the commercials for the finalists. Do you think the company should continue to spend the money to have celebrities promote the contest? I personally think they should feature more of the customers who are participating in the contest.
Hi Alina,
DeleteThanks for the reply!
I like your idea about showcasing more of the participants than the celebrities. The contest has gotten so much buzz on its own that I think the celebrity endorsement is a bit unnecessary.
I posted again and eliminated the references. Hopefully this works.
ReplyDelete