Enter The Nether Lands
View the case- Brand
- Doritos
- Year
- 2025
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- Fitzroy Amsterdam
Objective
Doritos wanted a way into Dutch "movie night" territory that popcorn had always owned, and the release of "A Minecraft Movie" gave it the opening. Rather than run ads about the film, the brand built something fans could actually step into, tying the country's own in-joke — "the Netherlands" sounds like "the Nether" — to the premiere.
Solution
Players walk up to a full-size, glowing Nether portal and scan it with their phone, which opens a no-install browser game right on the spot. From there they're inside Minecraft's Nether: they look around by moving their phone, then tap the screen to mine blocks, gather resources, and craft a weapon. A pig-faced enemy horde attacks partway through, and players fight them off and sabotage a bridge to push forward. Finishing the run enters players into a prize draw for a real 18-karat gold Doritos chip worth €1,000. The same game was reachable without visiting the portal at all — scanning a QR code from 135+ digital screens at Dutch cinemas, or going straight to doritos.nl/portal from a phone anywhere in the world.
Results
400,000+ unique interactions with the game, a 185% increase in "movie night" brand association, a 27% lift in brand preference, and 42.5 million campaign impressions.
- 1
The game begins at a full-size, illuminated Nether portal — installed at Museumplein in Amsterdam on March 28, 2025 and later at cinemas and train stations across the Netherlands and Belgium — or encountered on a digital screen, social media, or a portal-themed Doritos bag. Players scan a QR code on the portal with their phone, which launches the game instantly in a browser with nothing to install, then are prompted to physically step through the gate as their entry into the game.
- 2
Passing through the portal, the player's phone camera overlays Minecraft's red Nether dimension onto the real-world location where they are standing, blending the game world with physical surroundings.
- 3
Players navigate by physically walking through their surroundings and look around by turning the phone, with simple taps on the screen driving in-game actions.
- 4
The core loop starts with mining: players tap on blocks to collect resources, then use those resources to craft items and weapons.
- 5
Progression builds to a climax in which players sabotage a bridge to slow an advancing horde of piglins, then fight off the horde as the game's final challenge.
- 6
Players who complete the game earn a chance to win a physical prize: a massive Doritos chip cast in 18-karat gold, worth €1000.
- 7
The experience is also playable without traveling to Amsterdam: the same portal appears via QR code on street screens, on social media, and directly at doritos.nl/portal, letting players elsewhere — reportedly as far as Times Square and Piccadilly Circus — go through a comparable version on their own phone.
