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MARKETING INNOVATION

Frito-Lay’s CMO talks Doritos, Super Bowl ads, and the future of snack marketing

Brett O’Brien says that while advertising around the Super Bowl is important, the value is in how much you can do beyond game day.

Frito-Lay’s CMO talks Doritos, Super Bowl ads, and the future of snack marketing

[Source Photo: Getty Images]

BY Jeff Beer3 minute read

For almost two decades, whenever the Super Bowl approaches, you know two things: First, there’s going to be a football game. And second, there’s going to be a Doritos commercial during that football game.

Frito-Lay is once again a major Super Bowl advertiser, enlisting pop stars Jack Harlow and Missy Elliott for its yet-to-be-released big game ad. Doritos is also running a contest this week in Decentraland, challenging fans to make music for the chance to win $25,000, and more.

The parent company is also using the Super Bowl to hype PopCorners, a brand it acquired in 2019 that has become its fastest-growing snack. Despite the growth curve, it’s still a lesser-known name, so Frito-Lay went ahead and brought back one of the most beloved and iconic TV duos ever, Jesse and Walt from Breaking Bad

https://youtu.be/ZMlemd6U24Y

Frito-Lay chief marketing officer Brett O’Brien says that while advertising around the Super Bowl is important, the value of the opportunity is in how much you can do beyond game day.

“Do things on TikTok, do things in the metaverse, create things that make it more of an event that carries over much more than one spot,” says O’Brien. “It gets different types of people engaging in different ways, thinking about what you’re going to unveil.”

O’Brien took over the CMO role in June 2022 after leading Gatorade for more than a decade, and is aiming to use the momentum of the Super Bowl to push the company’s brand work in a couple of key directions.

https://youtu.be/3HHjujsOlJU

One is talking more about where the company’s products come from. O’Brien says that many people want to know more about the food they’re eating, and even if they’re not asking, Frito-Lay wants to tell them.

“We’ve got an opportunity here to remind people that our products come from farms all over America,” says O’Brien. “What we do, and how we source our products is important. Look at Lay’s potato chips. There are thousands of farmers across the U.S. who are employed, that work for Lay’s. Let’s shine a light on that, show what these people are doing on a daily basis, and then how it gets to you and your table. How do we open that up a bit to show people? You’ll see more of that from us.” 

Another direction we can expect more marketing investment in from Frito-Lay is the company using social and experiential to pitch its core products as culinary tools. Everyone’s slapped a few Doritos on a sandwich before, but this goes much further.

Late last year, the company launched a limited-edition Cheetos Duster, which was essentially a small, handheld blender whose sole purpose was to grind Cheetos into a cheesy dust labeled “Cheetle.” It sold out in minutes.

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“We made all these recipes in which to use the dust, making everything from potato pancakes to mozzerella sticks, and that led to online conversations of people sharing how they got creative,” says O’Brien. “It’s customization at its core.”

For the Super Bowl, the brand is launching a pop-up restaurant in Phoenix called Tost by Tostitos, that will serve Tostitos-infused dishes like shrimp tamale fritters, red chile-braised short rib skillet dip, and sopapilla with ice cream and honey for dessert. O’Brien says the goal is to continually showcase Frito-Lay brands that create what he calls “real culinary attributes.”

“When you first think about Tostitos, it might just be chips and dips. Great. But you can also make a chicken rub, you can make an ice cream, so many things,” he says. “Showing people how our products can be used in new and exciting ways is really fascinating. That’s something you’ll see a lot more from us.”

Launching the pop-up restaurant at the Super Bowl is a way for the company to combine its big game ads with its vision beyond this weekend. “The ads are big, but where we go from there, after the Super Bowl?” says O’Brien. “It’s about trying new angles and using it as a launchpad for more fun stuff this year.”

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