Dive Brief:
- Tostitos is letting consumers create digital piñatas in their likeness as part of a Cinco de Mayo promotion, according to a press release.
- After molding a custom avatar at the main Tostitos website, people can then share their piñatas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #TostitosPinataParty and #Sweepstakes to be entered for a chance to win a physical version of their piñata along with $1,000. There will be 21 winners, with one awarded each day leading up to Cinco de Mayo.
- The Cinco de Mayo promotion also includes limited-time only sopapilla-flavored tortilla chips.
Dive Insight:
The digital piñata element of the campaign is an example of how brands can drive online engagement by putting creative tools in the consumer's hands. Website visitors have to take the time to build their digital avatar using customizable options like physical features, expressions and clothing — including t-shirts that say "Tostitos" — and then turn to social to share their work.
Tostitos is also clearly cribbing a page from the virtual avatar playbook of popular apps like Bitmoji. Tying the digital piñatas to real-life sweepstakes rewards adds a nice multichannel element to the effort, however.
Other recent holiday campaigns have generated chatter by similarly focusing on user-generated content, novelty and a strong social sharing component. For Valentine's Day, Snuggles lent the voice of its mascot Snuggle Bear to a tool that let users create custom video serenades for social media, which ended up reaching an estimated audience of 140 million.
The full Tostitos promotion also includes a partnership with comedy-driven media company JASH, with a Cinco de Mayo-themed music video available on the Tostitos website and the brand's YouTube channel.
Cinco de Mayo is a popular holiday for brands with ties to Mexican culture and especially food. Last year, Taco Bell set a Snapchat record for a sponsored lens a campaign that received 224 million views during its 24-hour run.
