Title of Post: LAY’S® Asks Customers to Do Them a Flavour.
Organization Name: LAY’S® (PepsiCo Frito-Lay)
Industry: Food & Beverage Manufacturing
Web references: internationalist-awards.com, pepsico.com,
Description
LAY’S® is not shy to receive a helping hand from customers when it comes to creating the next big thing for America’s favourite chip. In 2006, the brand launched their “Do Us A Flavor” campaign, which ran in 14 countries around the world. The campaign invited people to submit their ideas for the next big potato chip flavour for a chance at a large cash prize. The campaign was most successful in the UK, where LAY’S® operates under the Walkers Snack Foods brand which received 1.2 million flavour submissions.
In 2012, the brand was looking for a new way to engage with their US audience. With increasing competition for the millennial audience in the snack food category, LAY’S® was looking for a way to engage their target 25 – 34 year old audience. With its tremendous success overseas, LAY’S® launched their famous “Do Us A Flavor” campaign in the USA. However, in order to communicate with millennials, they would have to be where their audience was, on social media of course. Compared with previous campaigns around the globe that were mainly mail and text driven, LAY’S® completely reinvented the contest by engaging with their audience through their desire to create, share and be recognized using social media.
LAY’S® launched a Facebook page with a unique, easy-to-use application that allowed users to create, submit and vote for their favourite flavours. The user experience was even more engaging with he help of restaurateur Eva Longoria and celebrity chef Michael Symon (host of ABC’s The Chew and chef & owner of Lola, Lolita, Mabel’s, B Spot Burgers and Bar Symon), who offered customers personalized flavour suggestions based on their own profile content and images. The two were also part of the judging panel responsible for choosing the contest finalists.
The results of the 2012 campaign were in! LAY’S® received 3.8 million submissions, 955 million unique story impressions and their fan base tripled with the addition of 1.2 million new fans resulting in a 12% increase in sales. LAY’S® also won silver in the 2013 Internationalist awards for Innovative Digital Solutions.
Now, lets fast-forward to 2015 where LAY’S® launched this year’s “Do Us A Flavor” campaign with a $1-million prize.
In July, the finalists were announced. Customers were then asked to vote on Twitter or Instagram using hashtags to cast their ballots – #VoteReuben #VoteBiscuits #VoteTruffle #VoteGyro.
Lessons for others
Voting wrapped up on October 18th, 2015 for this year’s “Do Us A Flavor” contest in the USA. As we await the final winner while votes are tallied, it’s hard to think the success of this year’s campaign was anything less than extraordinary. One of the key lessons we can take away from the “Do Us A Flavor” contest is the campaign’s incredible ability to keep customer’s engaged over a long period of time. The first step was to get customers to submit their flavours, followed by an announcement of finalists, where customers were once again invited to take part. Do this every year, and I think you have the perfect new recipe for product development through customer participation success!
Submitted By: Danielle Bozzo
To contact the author of this entry please email at: daniellebozzo@gmail.com
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