The Quest
- Brand
- Doritos
- Year
- 2008
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
Objective
Doritos was losing engagement with its core 16–24 audience as competition in the chip aisle intensified, and research showed that age group over-indexed on alternate reality games. The Marketing Arm built an online puzzle hunt to win that audience back, and used it to launch a new flavor without naming it — tasting the chip to guess the flavor became the game's opening move, and the reason to buy the bag.
Solution
The player bought an unmarked black bag reading "Solve the Puzzles. Take Control," went to DoritosTheQuest.com, and registered with an email address. A Da Vinci Code–style cipher wheel asked them to guess the hidden flavor; guessing right unlocked a run of Myst-like puzzles released in stages. Some clues sat in the triangle patterns printed on the bag itself (three different bag designs each hid a different code), others were posted on in-store displays that varied city to city, and others turned up on partner websites — so solving meant checking the pantry, the store, and the web in turn. A tracker showed each player's progress against everyone else's, and clearing one stage was the only way into the next. The three fastest to crack the final puzzle won a trip to Las Vegas for a set of real-world physical challenges, filmed and posted online as web episodes.
Results
Over five weeks, the campaign drew 70,000+ registered players and 650,000+ site visitors, who logged more than 6 million minutes on the site collectively. Doritos sales rose 200% year over year, with an additional 150% halo lift on brand revenue.
- 1
The game opens with a teaser website that shows only a countdown timer, with no explanation of what is coming.
- 2
Players discover the promotion on an unmarked black metallic Doritos bag printed only with a triangle pattern and cryptic copy about solving puzzles; they taste the unidentified chip inside and register with an email address on the game's website to begin.
- 3
The opening puzzle asks players to guess the mystery flavor using a rotating cipher-wheel dial; if they linger without answering, letters reveal themselves one by one, hangman-style, until the answer, Mountain Dew, becomes readable and unlocks the next stage.
- 4
Solving that first puzzle opens a linear chain of Myst-style puzzles, each one unlocking the next, with difficulty rising sharply as players progress.
- 5
Some answers aren't on-screen at all: codes are hidden in the bag's own triangle graphics across three different retail packages, in floor and shelf displays at stores that vary by city, and on outside partner websites, so no single player or location holds every clue needed.
- 6
New puzzle chapters release in stages over five weeks, and players must clear every puzzle from earlier chapters before advancing, so late starters have to work through the full backlog to catch up.
- 7
Throughout the game, players can check their standing against other competitors, seeing how far behind the current leaders they are.
- 8
The final puzzle reveals Las Vegas as a secret host city, and the first three players to solve it win an invitation to compete there in person.
- 9
In Las Vegas, the three finalists complete physical challenges: locked in a hotel elevator with a coded exit puzzle, jumping between moving boats to grab a puzzle piece, and rappelling down a 200-foot cliff to collect clues, before racing to a final puzzle for a $100,000 gold artifact.
- 10
Everyone else follows the finale after the fact, since the Las Vegas competition is filmed and released as a series of web episodes.
