Dive Brief:
- Doritos today (Sept. 29) will launch a retro-inspired telethon as part of a tie-in with Netflix’s hit show “Stranger Things,” per details shared with Marketing Dive. The first part of the show’s fifth and final season will air on Nov. 26.
- Consumers can call 1-855-4-HAWKINS to hear messages from ‘80s icons David Hasselhoff, Paula Abdul and sitcom character ALF and leave messages of their own. The number appears on bags of Doritos Collisions Stranger Pizza x Cool Ranch currently on shelves.
- The effort includes digital spots featuring the stars of the telethon, and select consumer messages will be posted on the brand’s social channels and billboards. Many brands have tied in with “Stranger Things” to tap into fandom around the show and general ‘80s nostalgia.
Dive Insight:
The “Doritos Telethon for Hawkins” arrives as fans prepare for the upcoming final season of “Stranger Things,” a show that originally debuted back in 2016. The Frito-Lay brand previously teamed with the Netflix hit around a virtual concert featuring ‘80s favorites The Go-Go’s, Soft Cell and Corey Hart. The telethon has a similarly straight-out-of-1987 lineup while also taking a multichannel approach to building an immersive fan experience.
“From retro visuals to surprise moments, we designed every element to make fans feel like they were part of the mission dialing into a snack-fueled hotline to the upside down,” Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer of parent company PepsiCo Foods U.S., said of the effort.
Along with the telethon, Hasselhoff, Abdul and the memorable furry alien life form from the 1980s will appear in digital spots highlighting fan milestones, “eerie infiltrations” of the show’s Upside Down universe and other “unexpected transmissions” from the show’s Hawkins, Indiana, setting.
Messages left on the telethon’s 800 number will be broadcast on social and on high-profile out-of-home ads. Press materials tease Easter eggs built into the experience and more phone experiences to be revealed via the brand’s social media.
Campaign creative was handled by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners with media by OMD, social by PepsiCo's in-house D3 agency and PR by Kechum. The effort will run on digital and social channels including Netflix, Meta, TikTok and AdMazing.
The telethon number was first teased on bags of the collaborative, limited-time Doritos Collisions Stranger Pizza x Cool Ranch product that fuses “pizza culture” with Cool Ranch Doritos, which debuted in 1986. The brand will also release Doritos Minis Glow in the Dark Spicy Sweet Chili, giving a “supernatural” upgrade to another fan-favorite flavor. Recently, Doritos took on a different retro style — that of vintage adult films — to promote its new Golden Sriracha chips.
“Stranger Things” has been a rich text for marketers looking to tap into fandom around the show and nostalgia for the culture of the 1980s. Brands including Chips Ahoy, H&M, Coke, Lacoste and, perhaps most notably, Domino’s have tied up with show in the past. The show has provided a template for how Netflix has looked to bring brand marketers to its platform, beyond its growing ad business.
