[caption id=”attachment_81” align=”alignleft” width=”300” caption=”My Doritos Entry”][/caption]

Doritos came up with a novel (well, sort of novel) promotion. Invent a new flavour, then run a contest to name it. Not only do you have to name it though, you must also enter an ad, and it has to be according to their restrictions (only use their music, 30 seconds only, etc.). 

The interesting part is the contest’s total integration with social media.  When making a contest entry, Facebook integration is built right in from their site, and your entry not only goes on the DoritosGuru.ca site but the Facebbook page as well, automatically. You can elect to have your entry posted on your Facebook profile. Instead of hosting the videos themselves, your actual video is hosted on YouTube, which also gets ratings, comments and traffic. People get to vote on the entries, and can also have these announcements automatically show up on their Facebook page by a simple click when voting. DoritosGuru also has Twitter announcements. Contacting the company, as I found out first hand, is best done through either Facebook or Twitter. It’s a great example of creating viral marketing through social media. Obviously Frito-Lay knows their demographic. This does beg the question though of using social media to promote television advertising, and is an interesting take on marketing.

I certainly had fun making the ad, something I’ve never done before, and it was an interesting test of my video editing skills too. It’s kinda neat to watch your ratings and comments on the entry as well, although it’s a little addictive and something I need to stop myself from doing all the time. I actually have two entries up right now, both using the flavour name ‘Atomic Cheese’. Both entries are doing reasonalbly well, although the newer one, which was funnier, is doing better - currently it’s in the top 12. We’ll see how it goes for the next few weeks. Go to http://is.gd/kqWU to see my video, and remember to vote thumbs up for it! You can win money on a daily basis just by voting too.