Social media, if used correctly, can be a powerful tool for businesses to reach out to their customers and fans. Many companies sell a product or a service that people enjoy, but few give people a reason to care about the company itself. Frito-Lay however, manages to do just that with their “Do Us A Flavor” Contest. By sparking creativity and collaboration, Frito-Lay encourages its customers to take a bigger part in realizing the company’s objectives—creating products that people want to buy.
Frito-Lay Social Media Campaign Story
* Fans are asked to submit a flavor via Facebook, Twitter, text, or YouTube, that they want to see in potato chips—they pick the name, up to three key ingredients, and the style of chips.
* Everyone then votes, through these social media channels, for their favorite flavors, and the top 4 are chosen as finalists. The final flavors are then actually created and sold nationwide for customers to try out.
* Voting recommences, and this time, one winner is chosen. The person who submitted the winning flavor earns a million dollar cash prize, and the other 3 finalists receive $50,000 each.
This is the third time that Frito-Lay has conducted this campaign and it has been wildly successful. Both fun and productive, the contest draws support and excitement naturally. Last year, Frito-Lay received almost 14 million submissions and this year, the contest has only gotten bigger.
You might wonder, this sounds great but what’s in it for us? Well, the key philosophies that made the campaign so successful in the first place apply to all businesses. The Lays campaign gives us an opportunity to reevaluate our social media and think differently! And no we don’t need a million dollar budget – the philosophies work universally.
Keep reading to see what Frito-Lay did right with its “Do Us A Flavor” social media campaign.
Key Takeaways
1. Allow customers to explore the brand
Customers enjoy food products and dining out, but most of them do not have a reason to interact with the brands. I, for example, eat at Cheesecake Factory almost every month but I have never had a reason to go online and connect with their Facebook page or check out their website – or engage beyond my meals. Social media campaigns, however, can give people a reason to engage with the brand, beyond the product or service that they are providing. Frito-Lay does this by encouraging people to vote for a new Lays flavor on their social media page. Without a campaign like this, millions of people would eat and buy Lays chips every day but never actually interact with the company.
“Contests that invoke customer participation with the product are widely successful in raising brand equity and engagement.”
2. Reach a wide audience
For starters, an exciting award takes care of the first step of making people want to participate. Secondly, the campaign is designed in a way that prompts participants to actively share their flavor submissions on social media to garner votes and support – naturally converting your participants into brand promoters! This helps the campaign reach an extensive network because it includes the social networks of all your participants – a reach you couldn’t achieve on your own. And lastly, the entire campaign process, as exciting as it may be, is actually very simplistic. Voting for example is just one-click, making it effortless for users to get involved.
3. Give people a reason to get invested in your company.
With this level of engagement, customers feel as though they are a part of the company, and are more inclined to vouch for the brand and hope for its success.
Frito-Lay utilizes an interactive campaign that uses audience input to generate an unprecedented level of care amongst all of its fans. Everyone who votes for a flavor, knows someone who made a submission, or makes a submission is now invested in the campaign, and as a result, in Frito-Lay. Once that type of customer loyalty is achieved, the benefits carry far beyond the campaign because now people care not only about Lays chips, but also about Frito-Lay as a brand.
Stay tuned to our blog and explore more creative ideas for your business!
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