Doritos lets 'Jurassic World' fans adopt giant chips hatched from dinosaur eggs

Dive Brief:

Frito-Lay's Doritos partnered with Universal Pictures to create a chip of "dinosauric proportions" in promotion of "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," which hits theaters June 22, according to news provided to Marketing Dive. Fans can win one of the foot-long Jurassic Doritos chips by tweeting @Doritos with the hashtags #JurrassicDoritos and #entry.
Fans can also bid on an auction for the chips, the largest Doritos has made to date, at JurassicDoritos.com through June 20. Proceeds will be donated to American Red Cross relief efforts in Hawaii, where many scenes from the film were shot. The one-foot chip, available in Nacho Cheese flavor, will "hatch" from a dinosaur egg that's shipped in "Jurassic World" replica crates. In a teaser for the promotion, actor BD Wong channels his character, Dr. Wu, to describe how the Jurassic Doritos came about via an experiment integrating dinosaur and Dorito DNA.
Doritos is also adding "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" packaging to seven of its flavors and launching an interactive website to support the effort. Consumers can enter online codes found on classic bags of Doritos to explore Isla Nublar, the film's fictional island setting, and rescue dinosaurs. Consumers can also enter to win prizes, including a trip to the real country of Costa Rica.

Dive Insight:

Doritos' "Jurassic World" stunt fits in with other recent marketing from the chip brand that has put a heavy focus on social media in the hopes that followers will actively engage with the campaign, in this case for a chance to win a unique collector's product. As part of its Super Bowl push earlier this year, Frito-Lay's parent company PepsiCo created a lip-sync rap contest between Doritos and its Mountain Dew beverage brand, which included a Snapchat lens that urged users to record and share their performances.

Like Doritos, other marketers have gone jumbo-sized with their "Jurassic World" tie-ups to match the blockbuster's dinosaur theme. Amazon shipped a 40-foot long box — which it claimed was its largest delivery to date — with the "Jurassic World" logo to a Los Angeles shopping center on May 30. Visitors could ask Amazon's digital assistant Alexa about what's in the box to unlock a multi-part interactive experience tied to the film.

Auctioning off novelty or collectors items online, like the Jurassic Doritos, is another trend marketers are starting to embrace to drive interest around special promotions or events. For Father's Day this year, Kraft is using eBay to auction off five sculptures made from its cheddar cheese and personalized to look like the winning bidders' dads. As is the case with the Doritos campaign, proceeds will go toward a social cause. Kraft plans to donate the proceeds to the hunger-relief organization Feeding America.

Marketers' heavy interest in "Fallen Kingdom" is unsurprising given the prior "Jurassic World" entry's big box office numbers and the sequel's already strong performance in international markets, where it was released earlier this month. "Fallen Kingdom" is running a global promotional campaign with brands like Doritos, M&M's, Jeep and Dr. Pepper that has an estimated media value of $185 million, or 2x more than the first "Jurassic World" in 2015, according to Deadline.