Frito-Lay gambles on US market with Doritos Roulette
"The Doritos brand is always looking for bold new ways to connect and engage with our fans, and Doritos Roulette - especially with our integration with Periscope - offers a new way to do so,” Jeannie Cho, senior director of marketing, Frito-Lay North America, told BakeryandSnacks.
Each bag of Doritos Roulette contains mostly Doritos nacho cheese flavored chips. The “roulette” element comes from the fact that hidden in every handful is a super spicy chip that looks the same as all the others.
The product has already gone on sale in several other global markets, namely Mexico - where it was first introduced in 2012, South America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Cho confirmed that as well as arriving stateside this month, Doritos Roulette was launching in the UK.
PepsiCo owned Frito-Lay is hopeful that opting for the 9.5oz and 3oz convenience store bag formats and leveraging social media will make Doritos Roulette a popular purchase among young males.
Harnessing social media
“We’re looking to target our core fans –young adult males who are highly active on social media,”said Cho.
Doritos will be using Periscope, the live video broadcast app launched by Twitter at the end of March, to host a live game show style giveaway in which contestants are chosen from viewers who are logged in to watch and a gameshow host spins a roulette wheel to determine the prizes.
“Fans will be able to tune in for a live gameshow-type giveaway streamed on Twitter’s Periscope platform. Called Doritos Roulette Live, the game is a fun take on the traditional gameshow premise, but with a roulette-style twist. On a certain day this summer the brand will invite fans to log into Periscope using their Twitter accounts and join the Doritos Roulette livestream,”explained Cho.
In addition, during the coming months, online games of chance on Twitter #DoritosRoulette will give consumers the opportunity to play for prizes ranging from wireless speakers to gaming consoles.
In the US, Doritos Roulette will be on shelf for approximately 12 weeks as a limited edition offer. But when measured by distribution, the launch will be the biggest limited edition in the history of Doritos in the US, claims Frito-Lay.
