Naomi Rothschild, Claire Sarosi, Joseph Yonke

Comm 100s: Mass Media & Society

The Pennsylvania State University – Professor Nichols

Case Study: “Do Us A Flavor”

Summer Session – July 17, 2019

In 2012, Lay’s chip company launched its ‘Do Us A Flavor’ campaign to celebrate its 75th anniversary. By doing this, Lay’s attempted to reach a new target audience of the younger generations using popular media platforms. The campaign’s goal was to incorporate social media buzz to drum up business and have customers be able to directly impact the products they were buying. It was launched through Facebook’s website where contestants could create a chip name, ingredients and a short description of the product they came up with. The winner of the competition would receive a $1 million cash prize. The first launch of the campaign was held in the UK in 2006, which had major success. After the accomplishments of the UK campaign, Lay’s launched it again in the US, hoping for the same success.

Lay’s used many different marketing techniques to make this campaign as successful as it was. Millennials, A.K.A the social media generation, were their target audience, so they decided to use Facebook as the source for contestants to submit their pitches. Lay’s also incorporated the multi-platinum recording artist Nick Lachey into their campaign to surprise the four finalists and award the winner in 2015. (Get Your Pitch On!) Other celebrity endorsements included celebrity chef Michael Symon and actress Eva Longoria, who were on a panel of judges to help narrow down the submissions (Get Your Pitch On!). These celebrity appearances helped generate more buzz for the campaign and got more people talking about the brand. To help capture the interest of customers, Lay’s allowed people to design their own bags, choose the ingredients that went into their product and allow them to share their bags all over Facebook to their friends and family.

Facebook was the catalyst used to expand its audience towards the younger generation. Lay’s Facebook page allowed their interested audience to participate in the campaign and submit their pitches. Members of Lay’s younger audience took part in the “Do Us A Flavor” campaign and pitched their flavor ideas partnered with a description and or story behind why they chose their new creation. Since the contest was previously held in the UK, it needed to be modified when it was redone in the US since Lay’s was hoping for the new attempt to be much more advantageous. In order to come up with a new and improved strategy, Anindita Mukherjee (the North American branch- chief marketing officer) collected a team to generate a marketing idea that would most effectively address the largest audience possible through the medium of a social media campaign. At the time, Facebook was near its peak in popularity in regards to millennials, so Mukherjee and her team chose Facebook as their source. 

PepsiCo’s ultimate goal for the “Do Us A Flavor” campaign was to create social media buzz among the 18-34 age demographic. In order to do that, they made their submissions through Facebook and created buzz among millennials about their brand and the new flavors of chips. As the campaign in England received 1.2 million submissions, they were hoping the same would happen for the US campaign, and that this would result in a +3% uplift in sales (Brittany W). In the company’s tenth campaign, they surpassed this goal, with 3 million submissions and 22.5 million Facebook page visits, they had an overall sales uplift of +12% (Brittany W). By 2015, Lay’s had a net worth of $3.5 billion dollars after their lift in sales, and after the winning flavor of cheesy garlic bread was launched, sales rose 8% (Shultz). Ad recognition and purchase intent both increased during the campaign (Franklin), and their social media following had more activity than ever by the end of the campaign. Not only did they attract attention to their products, but they also strived for a more emotional connection with consumers. They wanted their audience to feel heard, and to be interactive with the people who buy their products, in order to gain more consumers. It is obvious that Lay’s achieved their goal of being the talk of the town (Frito-Lay).

Frito-Lay created a marvelous marketing technique that works for their company and now many others. By incorporating the audience into their products they built an emotional connection with their customers. The campaign was effective by utilizing audience participation and various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube to reach the millennials and the younger demographics Lay’s was looking for. As a result, the campaign reached record numbers, much higher than what Lay’s had projected. The massive food products supplier, Frito-Lay, greatly grew their quantity of consumers by their “Do Us A Flavor” campaign, therefore accomplishing their mission. The company renewed customer consumption and introduced an extremely effective method of marketing, so significant that it permanently changed the marketing world forever.

 

Works Cited

BrandIndex. “Crowdsourcing Campaign Appears to Boost Brand Perception for Lay’s.”  Forbes,        Forbes Magazine, 13 Oct. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/brandindex/2014/10/11/crowdsourcing-campaign-appears-to-boost-brand-perception-for-lays/#3a0fdea2571d. 

“Do Us A Flavor.” Frito- Lays, 5 April 2015, www.fritolay.com/search-results/page/3?indexCatalogue=main-search&searchQuery=contest&wordsMode=0. 

Johnson, Lauren. “How Lay’s Is Adding More Social Zest to Its Popular Flavor-Creation     Campaign.” Adweek, Adweek, 27 Feb. 2015, “Frito-Lay Lay’s Do Us a Flavor – Gold.” Chief Marketer, Chief Marketer, www.chiefmarketer.com/pro-awards-winners/best-idea-or-concept-gold.

W, Brittany. “Crowdsourcing Your Next Chip Flavor: Lay’s ‘Do Us A Flavor’ Campaign.” Digital Innovation and Transformation, HBS Digital Initiative, 24 Mar. 2018, digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/crowdsourcing-your-next-chip-flavor-lays-do-us-a-flavor-campaign/.

“What Lay’s ‘Do Us a Flavor’ Campaign Says About Marketing.” KWHS, 17 Apr. 2018, kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/2015/05/lays-lesson-in-brand-awareness/.