Even if someone doesn’t care about football, they’re probably going to watch the Super Bowl because of the parties, food, and company, but mostly because of the commercials. The Super Bowl is watched by so many people that companies create these ads specially for the event and spend millions of dollars for airtime, writing, celebrity casting, special effects, and production. This is the investment they make in order to get more than 100 million people watching their content. The Super Bowl isn’t just about football; it’s about advertising, too.
Some of the popular brands featured have become crowd pleasers and are always expected, such as GoDaddy, Coke, movie trailers, car companies and… Doritos! It’s impressive that all these companies pay upwards of 4 million dollars or more, for airtime alone. Well, except Doritos, that is!
Doritos found a way to save money and make the audience part of their ads. Doritos had a contest for the best Super Bowl commercial, with a prize of one million dollars. So basically, Doritos is paying for the TV spot and only $1 million for the content, and the fans do all the casting, writing, filming, and producing of the actual commercial.
Not only does Doritos save a ton of money this way, they’re also building up their social engagement in a way no other corporation has. 5,500 entries were sent to Doritos when the competition was opened, and the entrants are responsible for getting the votes necessary to win. This means tons of Doritos commercials are floating around Facebook, Twitter and YouTube way before the Super Bowl occurs. The more intense the competition gets the more views there are on each commercial which leads to a sort of advertising snowball effect, with a huge amount of people noticing Doritos.
Of course, you may not have $1 million to spend on a competition to get your customers into your brand, but you can still make the most of user-generated content. Something as easy a prize for a photo-caption contest can bring in a lot of visits to your site or page. And, having a prize isn’t always necessary. Just include a picture of your client on your site each time a picture of them using your product is submitted. A place to put in reviews, comments, and testimonials is a good idea too so your fans can have a voice.
As a brand, make sure you keep user-generated content in mind because as Doritos proved, this method not only can have a massive reach, it also makes a deep connection with people since they become a part of the message you’re sending.