Doritos gamifies 'Spider-Man' campaign with web-based promo

Brief:

PepsiCo snack brand Doritos created an online game called "Spidey-Sense Challenge" for North American fans ahead of this summer's "Spider-Man: Far From Home" film release. The game challenges players to guide the Spider-Man character in a series of "web-shooter training courses" in several cities featured in the film, according to an announcement shared with Marketing Dive.
In select markets, specially marked Doritos products will contain codes that can be entered for a chance to win prizes, including a grand prize trip for two to Europe. The Doritos campaign will include on-pack design, in-store displays, TV creative, digital content and the sweepstakes.
Doritos partnered with Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios on the Spider-Man promotion in more than 35 markets worldwide. Doritos packaging in markets across North America, Latin America, Egypt and Asia will feature elements from the film.

Insight:

Doritos' tie-in with the next installment of "Spider-Man" is the snack brand's latest marketing effort targeting teens and young adults who flock to see superhero movies, a genre that collectively racked up an estimated $6 billion in global box office sales last year. The web-based game aims to tease "Spider-Man" fans with a glimpse of the movie and drum up additional excitement before the premiere.

Gamified promotions like this have become a key part of pre-release campaigns for major box office releases, especially amid the growing popularity of smartphones that allows for mobile gaming or immersive video content around a movie. Sony's "Escape Room," Warner Bros.' "Rampage" and Universal’s "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" featured gamified content in the films' respective marketing campaigns.

Doritos has made movie tie-ins a major part of its marketing mix in the past few years, including a push to coincide with last year's release of "Jurassic World." The brand offered fans a chance to win massive Doritos chips by tweeting the hashtags #JurassicDoritos and #entry to the brand's account on Twitter, Food and Wine reported.

This year, the snack brand's marketing included a Super Bowl ad that featured a collaboration between musician Chance the Rapper and the Backstreet Boys. Purchase consideration jumped 9.2% for Doritos following the ad, according to a YouGov analysis. The brand also benefited from a viral discussion of the best chip brands after comedian Kevin Fredericks posted a video on social media that spurred a high-profile argument among celebrities including actor Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in the Marvel Studios films.

Doritos' latest marketing efforts appear to be paying off, with the brand becoming the most popular brand for Frito-Lay, the snack foods division of PepsiCo. Doritos edged out Lay's in a customer satisfaction survey of Frito-Lay brands last year. Forty-eight percent of snack food customers said they were satisfied with the Doritos brand, compared to 47% for Lay's, 41% for Cheetos and 38% for Tostitos, according to YouGov data. More than half (52%) of Americans said they eat these snacks at least once a week, the survey found.