Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Doritos Crash the Superbowl

by Rachel on January 11th, 2008

Doritos are again doing a promotion around the superbowl, but this one is not as tied into the brand as last years, where fans put together a commercial, looking for the chance to have their shown during the biggest ad fest of the year (which is a good reminder to go and find out if the winners capitalised on their victory)

This year, the contest is far more customer focused - submit your song for a chance to win a recording contract and get a 60 second video on the ads during the game. Everything is focused around their MySpace page. The contest follows a common structure, Bands submit their songs, a judging panel chooses their favourite 10 and then you got to vote on them. Now we’re down to the last 3 and the last round of voting to find out who gets the main prize.

I wonder how many of the entrants got their lawyer to read the T&Cs. As far as I can see, the semi-finalists, the 10 songs chosen,, all have to sign licensing agreements which grants all titles and rights to the songs to the record label supporting the promotion. The label holds those rights for 6 months and can do what they like with them - which means the artists can do nothing with the songs. The winner basically seems to grant all rights forever for their work; the bands may be happy to do this, but it is still a risk when it’s possible to get your stuff out there without entering into such binding agreements.

Out of the three finalists, my favourite is Be Easy from Nivla (featuring P. Oberoi). The other two are OK, but this is a lot more fun.

If you get a chance, also take a look at Snack Strong Productions, Doritos hub for all the stuff they are now doing.

Update: After I’d written this, I saw this Ad Age article about the competition winners.

When Dale Backus and Weston Phillips, two founding members of creative video-development firm Five Point Productions, entered Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” competition last year, bypassing traditional ad agencies was the last thing on their minds. What they were aiming for was some quick cash and a chance to put their company on the map.

They seem to have succeeeded, as the company has lots of work and is no longer making sales calls.

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POSTED IN: TV, User Generated Content