Doritos iD3 – innovative NPD, brand as entertainer, and my latest project : )

I have been working alongside Initials on a really exciting campaign to support the launch of Doritos iD3: a limited edition mystery flavour. The alphanumeric name and mysterious black packaging invites consumers to guess the mystery flavour at www.doritos.co.uk/iD3 for the chance to win a chuffing £20K reward.

But guessing the flavour is just the beginning…

iD3 is not only an original product launch. It is also a three-part episodic online adventure for Doritos fans which uniquely blends film and gaming (starring Layer Cake’s Tamer Hassan). The iD3 adventure allows fans to become the hero in their very own ‘choose your own adventure’. Set in London’s shady underworld, the player goes undercover to help unlock the truth behind a mysterious case of mistaken identity, with huge prizes to be won along the way. Check out our thrilling trailer…

Doritos is no stranger to inviting consumers to play with the brand, and the iD3 advergame delivers just this by putting consumers in the driving seat of their very own personalised adventure. And the mystery flavour is a unique product innovation which will no doubt get consumers talking and engaging with the brand on a deeper level.

The adventure itself pushes the boundaries of technology. Each adrenalin-filled episode blends slick live action footage with 3D interaction, giving the whole experience a distinct high-production cinematic feel. The advergame is uniquely integrated with Facebook Connect, which enables a more personalised experience for Doritos fans by dynamically inserting content from your Facebook profile into the film. It also pushes c0ntent out to Facebook, as a result making the game more social.

We’ve created a number of secret levels and experiences (including the Konami Code) for experienced gamers (not me then…).

Even the support for the campaign is shrouded in mystery – with grassroots seeding and an exclusive blogger outreach programme. A live Twitter feed and Facebook fan page will keep Doritos fans up-to-date with the adventure.

The campaign has only recently launched, and yet Doritos iD3 is already gaining attention on blogs, forums, reviews, and of course Twitter. What’s more, there is high engagement on our Facebook fan page, with hundreds of fans guessing the mystery flavour. It just goes to show that the best ideas are the simple ones, and like Walkers ‘Do us a Flavour‘, they come across as somewhat obvious. Although in reality finding and creating them takes great understanding and insights.  And the activation of the idea has to be engaging and involving.

To guess the mystery flavour and play the game, you’ll need to pick up a special pack of Doritos iD3 – each pack code gives you 6 lives. Seeing as I’m a part of this little project, I do have a few free player codes I’m willing to give away to my readers  (though you can’t win prizes with my dummy codes).

Comments and feedback encouraged as always…

Fire real dodgeballs at real people – LIVE – with the Doritos Dodgeball Challenge!

It’s not too often I take the time to blog about my own projects here at AMV BDDO, but for me this has to be the most ambitious digital project I’ve ever taken on. That feeling of ‘are we really doing this?!’ hasn’t really left me yet. But I’m goddam excited!

The Doritos Dodgeball Challenge is our unique way of launching Doritos brand new flavour – Flamin’ Cheeseball. The Challenge gives people (that’s you!) the chance to aim and fire real dodgeballs – LIVE - from six purposely engineered dodgeball canons, each controlled by a member of the public online – here at the Doritos website. That’s right, via the Internet everyone will be able to fire real dodgeballs at real people with pinpoint accuracy. Sweet! We’re seeding this video (via Unruly) to get the word out…

Facing the canons will be a selection of the UK and Ireland’s leading Dodgeball teams, each competing to be crowned the Doritos Dodgeball Champions. The winning team will then be invited to a one-off ‘world-series’ dodgeball match against the reigning US National Dodgeball League champions, the San Diego Crossfire.

During the hours of play when the professional dodgeball teams are not competing in the competition proper, a variety of celebrities, including Timmy Mallett and Jodie Marsh, will make a special appearance in ‘the cage’.

The site itself was produced in partnership with the amazingly-talented Shoreditch based creative production company, Unit 9.

This project really has been a labour of love for the whole cross-agency Doritos team. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it!

p.s. I’ll probably be facing the canons a couple of times in May, so if you’ve ever wanted to fire a ball at me, now’s your chance!

Doritos Collisions – The battle for your tastebuds is on.

‘Doritos Collisions’ is the first new product launch from Doritos in years. This unique concept sees two great tasting flavours in just one bag.

It may sound bizarre, but it’s the latest, and possibly quirkiest, campaign from Doritos yet. In an era where viewer interest in watching 30-second ads is waning, Doritos is fighting back with non-traditional branded content. Or in this case, a wrestling match between mascots representing the four Doritos Collisions flavours.

Great branded content doesn’t come across as advertising and in doing so, stands a much better chance of getting passed along among peers. People only have so much time on their hands, and technology means they have more and more power to only watch what they want. Doritos seeks to engage people by providing them with digital and real-world brand experiences that are fun, memorable, and utlimately possess great talkability.

In the inaugural battle for your tastebuds, the characters (who are currently in training) are (drum roll please)…

He’s crazy for Chicken Sizzler flavour, it’s the Feathered Fury. Look closely, and you may spot Mr. Pearman himself! (MD of AMV BBDO)

Keeping it real for the Grilled Pepper flavour – The Griller.

Representing T-Bone Steak flavour – Tenacious T.

And last but certainly not least…carrying the hopes of Zesty Salsa flavour, all the way from Mexico, it’s El Zesto.

I hope you enjoy watching these, as much as we all enjoyed making them!

The driving platform for Doritos Collisions is through ‘The Gap Year’ reality web series – in collaboration with Bebo, the global social media network, and leading entertainment producer Endemol. ‘The Gap Year’ follows on from the phenomenal success of Sofia’s Diary and Kate Modern.

Doritos Collisions will be uniquely integrated into ‘The Gap Year’ experience which follows six lucky Bebo users from the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US on a dream gap year visiting exotic locations across the globe. The Gap Year is the perfect platform for Doritos, who as a brand are continually looking to use new media in innovative campaigns to really engage and develop long term relationships with their 18-24 year old audience.

Digital is at the heart of the campaign, but the story unfolds across multiple platforms. A launch event is taking place at the SE1 club in London Bridge on 7th August, which sees the four flavours go head to head. Following the event, Doritos Collisions will go on a regional tour across six major cities in the UK. More info over at www.bebo.com/doritos.

Tickets anyone?

If you (plus 1) are interested in coming to the London launch event (7th August at SE1), just drop me an email with your full name and friends name, confirmation you’re 18+, and blog (if you have one – and there’s no obligation to blog about it). Places are limited so get in there fast! Also, the event is being filmed for Internet broadcast, so by attending this event you are consenting to potentially feature in the footage (no guarantees of Internet stardom sorry!).

Think! Road Safety: Test your powers of observation with the Driving Challenge

There’s a lot of great digital work coming out of AMV BBDO at the moment, but I’m especially proud of the Driving Challenge viral we have just launched for Think! Road Safety – a remarkable project I have been involved in since my very first day here.

Just over a year on from the introduction of the tough new penalty of three penalty points and a £60 fine for using a mobile phone whilst driving, the Driving Challenge directly builds upon a film made by the University of Illinois 10 years ago which demonstrates the psychological principle of ‘inattentional blindness’. Essentially, the interactive game uses this concept to demonstrate that your driving is impaired when talking on a mobile phone, either hand held or hands free. In fact, the game reveals that if you use your mobile phone whilst driving, you are four times more likely to crash! Its whole aim is to encourage drivers to be more vigilant. If you haven’t come across this phenomenon before, I can’t tell you too much without giving it all away, so I encourage you to take the test here.

Some of you more industry savvy readers will probably have come across WCRS’ similar ad for TFL – www.dothetest.co.uk. This is aimed at protecting cyclists rather than mobile phone safety, but essentially both ideas are based on the same psychological phenomenon. There is a fair bit of controversy surrounding this ad within our industry – a glimpse of this debate is over at Scamp blog here. Its not all too surprising that there are two creative ideas about road safety based on this same principle: all road safety communications boil down in some shape or form to mental focus and to paying more attention to the road, and this is also what underpins the psychological phenomena at the heart of the strategy for both pieces of communication.

The gorilla / basketball video is one piece of stimulus illustrating what is the best-known study on inattentional blindness, conducted by Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois, and Chris Chabris of Union College, whilst at Harvard in the late 1990s. The video is now widely used in interventions for traffic offenders and other training roles where it is important that people appreciate the limitations of the human brain. For more information and to see other videos relating to Professor Simons’ research, please visit this link. We worked closely with Dr. Burgess throughout this project, consulting him at each stage of development. His support was crucial in enabling us to develop the most effective and therefore behaviour-changing piece of communication possible. If the Driving Challenge and Do The Test even saves one life, then it’s worth the fury of the blogosphere.

Love it or loathe it, please share your thoughts here…

Oh yeah, should probably mention again – all the views expressed here are solely those of my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of AMV BBDO and/or our clients.