Dive Brief:
- Tostitos, a PepsiCo Frito-Lay brand, launched a digital Super Bowl party invitation creator on its website called "Super Bowl Ads for All." The platform allows users to create personalized video ad invites featuring iconic Super Bowl themes like talking babies, puppies and '90s icon Alfonso Ribeiro," per a press release.
- To create a custom Super Bowl party video invitation, users can enter the party host's name, location and start time. Each video invitation stars Ribeiro, who currently hosts "America’s Funniest Home Videos" and is famous for his role on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," as the emcee. Customers can remix their ads and share them from the Tostitos site, and the company said there are "hundreds" of combinations to be had.
- Tostitos is giving hosts who use the invitation-creation tool a buy-one-get-one-free Tostitos dip coupon. The chip-and-dip brand is also setting up a Cantina-style experience in Minneapolis during the week leading up to Super Bowl LII, with Ribeiro on hand to help sign people up on the "Super Bowl Ads for All" platform.
Dive Insight:
Tostitos's "Super Bowl Ads for All" platform plays into the fact that the Super Bowl is about much more than the broadcast game itself. About half of viewers who watch the Super Bowl do so at a party, whether they're hosting or attending, according to data from the National Retail Federation cited in the news release. By allowing hosts to customize their video invites with a notable star and some recognizable big game touchstones, Tostitos can keep its brand top of mind for any party-planning activities, as chips and dip are a staple, and also garner some positive word-of-mouth as people share and remix their own videos.
Other food brands are enacting similar strategies for Super Bowl LII. Avocados from Mexico partnered for the fourth time with General Mills's Old El Paso on a multichannel campaign that this year includes Guac Nation, a blogger and influencer outreach program featuring recipes, in-store displays, coupons and social media content. Tostitos, a longtime NFL advertiser, also joins a list of marketers that are foregoing a traditional Super Bowl TV spot this year.
The hefty price tag of ad space combined with declining NFL ratings appears to have lead many in the ad world to look at less costly strategies, such as social media and user-generated content like that provided in "Super Bowl Ads for All," which offers an interesting take on digital video marketing around the big game. Tostitos also used UGC for its Cinco de Mayo promotion last year. Consumers could create custom digital piñata avatars and share them on social media with brand- and campaign-focused hashtags to enter to win $1,000 and a real-life version of their piñata.
