Frito Lay Canada

In keeping with its user-generated strategy, Frito Lay brand Doritos wanted to find a consumer-driven way to introduce one of two new flavours: Onion Rings n’ Ketchup or Buffalo Wings n’ Ranch.

The beginning of “The End” was marked by the release of the two new flavours to stores across Canada. BBDO designed the packaging — a bold, white bag marked “A” for Onion Rings n’ Ketchup, and a contrasting black bag marked “B” for Buffalo Wings n’ Ranch.

The campaign launched with a 60-second commercial during the Super Bowl. The twist? The last 20 seconds hadn’t been written yet. The first 40 seconds of the commercial set up the premise: that there were two new flavours on store shelves and one of them must be destroyed. The commercial cut out and consumers were invited to go to Writetheend.ca where they could use a 3D virtual antique typewriter to say which flavour should be destroyed and how in 400 characters or less, and have their entry voted on.

The contest was pushed with online

ads, social media pages and posts, and with a traditional media buy on teen-centric TV channels.

A panel of judges picked the winner from the 14 entries with the most votes. BBDO shot the winning ending, but kept the spot and the winner under wraps until May 5, when it debuted on MuchMusic and MusiquePlus. In the end, Mélanie Normandin of Repentigny, Quebec walked away with a cheque for $25,000 plus 1% of all future Onion Rings n’ Ketchup sales.

The 30,000 submissions Writetheend.ca received exceeded Frito Lay’s goal of 6,000 entries by 500%. They garnered nearly 300,000 votes, and over the course of the campaign, the site received more than 550,000 visits.

The campaign also generated 244 media stories chronicling “The End” and over 187 million PR impressions. It led to a marked increase in the number of Doritos fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter. Further confidential sales results were shared with the judges.