The Doritos Factor

Know how much a 30 second commercial costs in the Super Bowl? $4,000,000. Yes, that’s right- supply and demand at work. 

Leading up to the game there seems to be as much discussion about offensive and defensive strategy as which advertisers will air commercials. Advertisers clamor for the eyeballs that watch this yearly sporting event because those eyeballs are connected to wallets that spend money and buy products. But even at $4,000,00 for a 30 second slot, it is a crowded landscape. How do advertisers stand out and get recognized?

Frito-Lay’s Doritos brand has taken a page from the nonprofit playbook (continuing the sports metaphor) by engaging the public in a crowdsourcing campaign called ‘Crash the Super Bowl’. The campaign is getting a lot of PR buzz both in traditional and social media. The premise is that ordinary citizens can produce and submit executions of commercials to sell Doritos. Many entered and the final five have been selected for voting

(See the 5 semi finalists http://mashable.com/2014/01/02/doritos-super-bowl-2014/).  

Two winners will be chosen, one by the public and another by the Doritos marketing team. Both ads will be telecast in this year’s Super Bowl.

What can we in the nonprofit sector learn from this campaign? We can learn that the opportunity for our stakeholders and donors to actively participate with an organization and to lend their voice is incredibly appealing.

Folks, we in the nonprofit sector have been doing this for years with ‘peek behind the curtain’ activities (the Museum of Modern Art in New York is currently offering a tour of its storage facilities for a mere $25- after, of course, you become a member) and donorcentric events and communications.

But now the importance of active engagement has been quantified. Cygnus Applied Research, thought leader Penelope Burke’s research company, quantified the impact of crowd engagement in a recent survey. The following are highlights of the study from The Chronicle of Philanthropy

‘Free gatherings that recognize donors’ contributions and educate people about a charity’s work spur donors to give generously, the survey found, far more than conventional approaches like publicizing a donor’s name.

Of those donors (surveyed), 87 percent said the events had a positive influence on their decision to support the charities hosting them.

And since attending their most recent event, 31 percent said it motivated them to give again without being asked,

Another 36 percent said they contributed when asked,

And 20 percent more said they had not yet been asked but would give again.

“There is a huge tangible connection between being invited to an event and the good feelings a donor has about a nonprofit,” says Ms. Burk. Events, she adds, “take a lot of time and effort to organize, but when you get results like this, they are worth it.”

Other tactics used by fundraisers did less well. For instance just 12 percent of donors were motivated to give because a charity publicly listed their names, 11 percent because the group invited them to join a giving club, and 7 percent because the charity sent them token gifts such as address labels or greeting cards.

So as we work toward increasing donor retention let’s consider engaging our donors in participatory activities that educate, allowing them to lend their voice and become an advocate for your organization’s mission.

If Doritos can get people excited about snack chips, we can work to actively share our missions and get people excited about making the world a better place.

Let’s think differently