There’s a very natural connection between snacking and gaming and also snacking and watching sports. It goes, then, that snacking while playing a sports game is almost taken for granted. And, statistically speaking, there’s probably a great likelihood that the game and the snack are Madden and Doritos, making a partnership of the two brands very intuitive. Michael Fox, Director of Marketing for Doritos, agrees with the above assement and was eager to talk about how Doritos and Madden came together.

[a]list: Give me a general overview of the promotional relationship you have with EA Sports for Madden 11.

Michael Fox: It’s more of a partnership, really. Doritos is beloved by young adults, we like to look at what passions they have. Our studies show that between 94 and 97 percent of young adults identify themselves as gamers, and oftentimes they’re eating Doritos while doing so. We like to encourage participation from our fans, like with our Super Bowl promotion where they helped us make some ads. We did something similar on Xbox Live, where we had a contest for users to create their own games. So we were looking into how we could connect with gaming experiences. And EA had some amazing ideas and looked to see how Doritos could be an exciting part of the Madden game.

[a]list: Let’s start with the promotion where you enabled users to choose the cover athlete.

Michael Fox: You look at how people play Madden deal with the franchise; they pre-order the new version after the Super Bowl. So we wanted to help them leveraging our bags. We sell millions of bags per year, and we created the program to allow users to choose the cover informing them with our chip bags. It was a close contest, but ultimately Drew Brees won. It was the beginning of a fantastic partnership with EA; the cover promotion was really groundbreaking for them.

Image from the Madden cover promotion.

[a]list: Where did the nascence for the idea come from?

Michael Fox: We were looking for breakthrough ideas. When we were talking with EA, we wanted to look into something that we could turn into a real event. When you think about it, considering how people wait for it, the revealing of the Madden cover athlete is like the Time ‘Man of the Year’ or the Sports Illustrated cover model, and we thought “Why don’t we open this up for consumers?” We’ve done a promotion like this before, when we put NFL legends like Marshall Falk our our bags, and this time we sure got a tremendous amount of buzz and engagement and lots of votes.

[a]list: Tell me the story behind the two special Madden flavors of Doritos: Stadium Nacho and Tailgater BBQ.

Michael Fox: We have these two flavors that we made with the people in Orlando [Tiburon]. We went to NFL games and looked for what people do at the games. You have a lot of different experiences depending on where you go in the country, and these are two of the more universal experiences. We had a Hot Dog flavor, we already have a Cheeseburger flavor, and as we tried a lot of things, these are the two flavors that really jumped out. You’ll get quite a complex flavor from the nacho and the BBQ is an amazing simulation of real smoky BBQ. So we created those two flavors, Stadium Nacho and Tailgater BBQ, reflective of the fan experience. The bags feature an image of a football helmet and every bag has a code for the Madden ultimate team.

[a]list: How long are the flavors going to be available?

Michael Fox: Stadium Nacho and Tailgater BBQ are both limited edition flavors, so pick them up while you can!

[a]list: How long have Doritos and Electronic Arts been working together?

Michael Fox: We actually only got started working with them about a year ago. I believe they’ve worked with other Pepsi Co. brands in the past, but we operate independently in their snacks division. We’d certainly like to do more in the future.

[a]list: Talk to me a little bit about the Ultimate Team.

Michael Fox: It’s kind of like a combination of fantasy football and collectable cards. The codes will give you access to numerous players like Adrian Peterson, and you’ll be able to access a certain playing deck.

[a]list: Any final thoughts?

Michael Fox: At the end of the day, it’s a great way for us to engage with fans of Doritos and form something around what fans love. We’re excited to see what’s next and the early response to the flavor launch has been great. We’re excited to see what they’ll think after the game is going to come out. I’ve gotten a chance to try Madden NFL 11 out, and game is going to be amazing, it’s going to be really good and exceed expectations.

Oh, one final thing: expect to see Madden branding on our regular Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch flavors as well!

[a]list: Thanks Michael.

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