PepsiCo International
Client: PepsiCo International
Product: Doritos
Title: Doritos Silent: The World's First AI Augmented Snack
Media: Gaming Software, Outdoor, PR, Social, Twitch, Digital
Country: UK
Date Of Campaign: 01/11/23
Background: Doritos is the number one snack brand for gamers worldwide. Which is a privilege. But there’s a problem. Our much-loved crunch disrupts and annoys other gamers subjected to the noise in their microphone. So, instead of regarding this issue as an inescapable by-product of Doritos popularity, we decided to pivot and turn this consumer pain point into a marketing opportunity. We also wanted to create top of mind awareness for the brand and improve both the gaming and snacking experience in one stroke.Doritos believes in being bold, so we shined a spotlight on our key selling point, our iconic crunch, and used it to start a conversation about a huge gaming bugbear. In essence, we turned our one weakness into a strength. By creating technology that solved a category problem, we not only appealed to gamers, but we also secured more loyalty and credibility within the gaming community.
Idea: Gamers love to snack. And Doritos is their number one choice. But our bold crunch and gaming don’t mix. The sound annoys players on their headphones and disrupts the game. Our solution?Doritos Silent Same Crunch. No sound. Doritos Silent is the world’s first AI augmented snack that removes every Doritos crunch from every game.To completely silence the Doritos crunch for anyone on the other side of the microphone, PC Gamers simply download the Crunch Cancellation Software from Doritos.co.uk/silentTrained on over 5,000 Doritos crunch noises, the AI tech separates the audio of someone’s voice from the distinctive crunch of a Dorito, then cancels all that munching, all in real-time. Gamers can now finally enjoy the same delicious crunch, without making a sound. So, no more rage quits, no more distraction. Just gaming and snacking, the way it was meant to be.To create our innovative Crunch Cancellation software, we worked with leading sound engineers for six months, improving upon the limited beta software launched in Spain in 2022.Traditional selective noise suppression works by learning the sounds of a human voice and filtering out anything outside of those distinctive voice signatures. However, this traditional technology sometimes misregisters the sound of a Doritos crunch and lets it cut through the software.To solve the problem, we had to construct an AI that was trained by listening to over five thousand Doritos crunch noises. The technology used three separate AI models working simultaneously. One was trained to identify different crunch sounds. The other learned how to differentiate human voices. The third model cleaned up the audio of extraneous noises.This technology worked in real time, allowing a gamer to only hear a fellow gamer’s voice input, without a single Doritos crunch being detected.
Results: The buzz generated by the campaign enjoyed 3.2bn earned reach, our biggest global Doritos gaming campaign ever. It received over 250 pieces of coverage, created a +76% uplift in on-target brand impressions and had over 200K organic social engagements. Doritos also recorded a +$50m sales growth. And the results amongst the gaming community were equally impressive. Interest in the Crunch Cancellation software drove more than 1.8m website hits to find out more and generated over 15K downloads in the first few weeks. And our Twitch Doritos emote was spammed more than 5.3m times! The campaign drove unprecedented talkability and global PR for the brand, driving commercial success and top of mind awareness. So not only did we enhance the gaming and snacking experience, but we also boldly silenced our biggest asset and by doing so, solved a pain point for consumers that succeeded in making our iconic crunch even louder.
