Doritos took a healthy risk with their “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, where the Pepsico owned company bought several spots during the Super Bowl, traditionally valued between $2-4 million per placement, then looked to amateur filmmakers to come up with the TV creative. The contest is now in its sixth year. Last year’s winner not only took the prize, a cool $1 million from Doritos, but also had their ad rated highest by USA Today’s coveted Ad Meter ranking. It’s safe to say Doritos is scoring big with the effort.

As luck might have it, the winners from last year are in the running again this year. Except it turns out luck has nothing to do with it. Nate Daniels is the man behind the campaign for the winning ad in 2012, “Sling Baby.” His team is vying for the prize this year with the spot “Fashionista Daddy,” which recently became a finalist and is currently the second most popular among viewers.

What’s their secret Backing their campaign with the kind of marketing you’d expect for a product launch, from PR and social media outreach to viral videos and even a branded game.

We talked with Daniels, who is now a social media strategist at Ayzenberg, about how they pulled off last year’s win.