Fritos should fire their marketing department

According to Blind, the only staff members at FYMD who have worked on the salty snacks category are currently on "vacation" in Chang Mai, Thailand so we weren’t able to get their full perspective…But we did “monitor” some posts on the socials that the brand teams at Frito-Lay tend to stick around for awhile. Which means maybe they’ll get a pass on getting shitcanned for producing this dog’s breakfast of an ad.

Beverly Hills Housewives or Orange County? Ranch or Blue Cheese? Tastes Great or Less Filling? Just the tip or the whole finger? Are you down for everything? Cause Frito’s is down for everything.

And, to provide a balanced and scientific perspective, we did an internal audit as well as polling the entire staff across the global FYMD footprint and the results were groundbreaking - we are also down for everything.

The Snacks Business:

From the point Mr. C.E. Doolin and Mr. H.W. Lay finally merged their expanding snack food empires into the Frito-Lay Company (FLC) way back in 1961 to a merger with PepsiCo 4 years later they already had over 30 years of snackin’ expertise - and now with 29 Brands and 55,000 employees the FLC uses enough potatoes to stack all the way to the moon and back - every year! 

But we digress - this is about corn chips, specifically of the Frito variety. So we can tell you Statista says in 2022 that almost 240 million Americans will enjoy a tasty corn chip of some variety. That’s almost enough corn chips to line the infinity pool at Chengpeng Zhao’s crypto palace. Google. It’s your friend.

Conversely, their big business, lack of organically gown corn, and inability to name the farm where the corn came from doesn’t allow them to be included in the refreshed daily, free snack bin at the FYMD Noe Valley Annex, but Frito’s are delicious as fuck and whatever algorithm determines their salt to chip ratio might be one of the greatest math calculations of all time. Metaverse that, Zuckerberg.

Sidebar: We also don’t know their role in the “industrial salt complex” - and while we can’t tell you how, FYMD knows there’s some shady people running that racket.

Table Stakes:

This is where size really matters - agriculture, manufacturing, packaging, distribution  FLC is also vertical AF, as they say in those smart marketing books you’re reading. And per Grand View Research the savory snacks category is worth nearly $37 Billion in 2020 and will achieve around 6% CAGR through 2028 - which means that FLC makes bajillions of dollars selling extruded snacks (technical term for Fritos) to likes of you and me, but mostly you.  

However, the fastest growing category within the overall savory snack business is Nuts and Seeds, which is maybe why Frito’s chose to go into market with new creative - Are they protecting share? Are they trying to drive retail shelf space for an ageing product line by exciting their trade? Did some super-pumped Wharton MBA get promoted and needs to mansplain corn chips?

We’re just asking questions. 

Competitive Insight:

There’s lots of chips. Some corn. Some potato. All delicious. Ok…truth is we let our research team go to Thailand for some “rest and relaxation” so our normal level of competitive rigor is a touch below normal standards. Don’t worry they’ll be Covid and STD free in short order.

Creative Appreciation:

Bro’s shopping. Bro’s playing guitars. Bro’s walking taco. Bro’s fixing their truck. Bro’s camping. Bro’s and their dog.

This is basically a Copenhagen snuff commercial without the dip cup.

All not kidding aside, FYMD seeks to provide that key creative insight or other buzzword that justifies our large consulting fees. And today, that buzzword is Communications Planning. 

We love the dark art of comms planning here at FYMD. 

The ability to influence creative and media simultaneously as to effect how a piece of communications actually lives in the world and is absorbed by the audience is incredibly difficult - And after watching the 'Down for Everything’ spot multiple times while sober, it’s mostly clear they are trying to connect “occasion to enjoy” with “the product” over and over.  This is smart stuff because people do eat a lot of chips and letting them know that it’s ok to eat chips when you’re playing guitar with your bro shows a level of communications planning expertise that leads the FYMD team to believe that Frito’s media agency includes comms planning in their retainer.

Lastly…Did we not feel the need to remind people how delicious Frito’s actually are or was your bro supposed to do that while you were trying on joggers?

What The FYMD Staff Has To Say:

After a round of single origin espressos pulled by our Aussie barista, Bryce, the Noe Valley Annex team had a couple of thoughts. Then they Googled best beard trimmers for awhile. Did their Wordle. Then finally put pen to paper on this whole Frito’s white southern bro listicle. 

Two kinda marketing thingy’s are bothering the FYMD team: How does this piece of communications solve anything? And what is the name of the account person who sold this because they’re a fucking legend.

So we used sock puppets to reenact the final internal creative meeting and came up with what we feel is probably how this all went down

Creative Bro #1 “This is the next priceless MasterCard ad, bro!”
Creative Bro #2 “Down for everything! - this campaign could last years!”

Creative Bro #1 “We want to use this director from Australia who fukin’ rulez”

Creative Bro #2 “Dude, we have to be authentic, gotta stay real”

Planner “Can you explain exactly how this is going to sell corn chips - also is  there budget for me to go on the shoot?”

Group Business Director “Mastercard…Priceless….My Precious….”

There was also a whole weird sock puppet academy awards reenactment scene, but it didn’t seem important to how this campaign got approved.

Anywho…when did Fritos become a lifestyle brand?

We’re just asking questions.

Netflix should fire their marketing department

The timing on this might be nigh...but this Super Bowl ad shit show deserves some renewed attention.

And why would we at FYMD shine light on a 60 second piece of air that no one noticed. Got no press. And was lost to the world like a $14 million fart in the wind…Because someone should. 

Super Bowl Special:

The Super Bowl is the ultimate platform for adverting. Well, in the good ol’ USA that is…and maybe Australia. The Aussies literally don’t shut up about marketing and advertising, they even have an entire show on the television, about ads. No really. 

Irony. You have met your future wife. Her name is Kylie and she lives in Woollahra. 

Anywho, back to the Super Bowl. 

Irrespective of your opinion of ‘American Football’, the Super Bowl is a thing. The marketing hype, the lead up and the general spectacle are like constant dopamine hits to your noggin for a solid two weeks. It’s truly the only real platform left on American broadcast television and because of that it requires a bit more thoughtfulness to take advantage of and make the juice worth the squeeze on cost/effectiveness/value/etc.

Table Stakes:

1: Every agency in the world wants you to do a Super Bowl spot. This is the highest cost :30 spot for your media agency to broker and probably the most profitable production of the year for your creative agency - so in one fell swoop your single :30 spot may have allowed your agency to hit their operating margin for the month (or more).

2:Every creative in the world wants to do a Super Bowl spot. The opportunity to use the essence of creativity combined with the power of the platform can truly transform brands and solve business problems. Ok…that’s bullshit. This is about award entries, portfolio building and general starfuckery - but that also doesn’t mean it won’t be good and/or help your business.

Competitive Insight:

Kantar Media said in Super Bowl 2022 there were over 44 minutes of ad time across 68 actual ads from 56 different advertisers (Thanks WPP, you’re the bestest). This includes 6 ads from direct streaming competitors. There’s no way around it, even with an engaged audience that’s a fuckton of messages.

Now the millions of advertising professionals reading this will naturally ask: What about testing for Brand and Execution cut-through? Hmm..thinking that probably didn’t happen…we love entertainment marketing here at FYMD.

No testing. Tick. Tons of category messaging. Check. Nearly an hour of commercials. Bingo. We’ll take advertising effectiveness for $100 Alex.

Creative Appreciation:

Actors! Movies! Jump Cuts! Netflix! Ryan Fucking Reynolds! He’s just so dreamy and personable (no really, guy seems super cool and funny) that people should just hand over their credit card because they’re so lucky to see the Adam Project. We hate to use irony twice in one post, but…Ryan Reynolds is quite the marketer, so it’s ironic that he would approve of such a boring, shitty ad for his brand. They guy has taken on challenger marketing with his Mint Mobile, he owns socials and generally takes a different approach on communicating with his various audiences - and he seems pretty genuine in wanting to connect with them. 

What The FYMD Staff Has To Say:

After an extended stroll around the FYMD’s Brooklyn offices - we adjourned to the hard kombucha bar and took the temperature on this mess, coming up with 4 high level issues that we hope Netflix addresses for their future Super Bowl dalliances: Lack of leadership, Fear based decision making, Unclear objectives and Poor strategy. 

Who ever approved this ad had probably been navel gazing for while and/or is highly susceptible to agency bullshit. There was just no way this ad was going to have any real impact and a quick search of the Googles proves it - the ad is no where to be found in any ranking. So who made the decision to push go on a $14 million dollar spot without a strong POV driving it and a clear link to their business.

That being said, this is pretty typical entertainment marketing fare - because this is what used to work. Limited choice and limited distribution created excitement and awareness and so why not make an ad that internal stakeholders will approve. But is that a creative solution to a business problem? Is getting something approved the goal?  Don’t fuck up shouldn’t be the decider here…

So, you’ve pulled the trigger on a Super Bowl spot - did you create a killer brief? Did you pressure test the objective to make sure that your creative partners could deliver something worthy? Did you design for consumer outtake and understanding? Did you account for how this piece of communications actually works? Did you realize you were going to be surrounded by all of your competitors? As marketers we can’t do everything and we shouldn’t want to - it’s your job to make hard fucking decisions with the hope they are based in research, gut instinct, years of experience, market forces, or something else that will actually move the needle on your business. 

And lastly, and the real reason that Netflix should fire their marking department is that if you don’t have a very clear strategy, spending $14 million dollars on one TV spot is a terrible fucking strategy…They didn’t understand the platform that is Super Bowl, they didn’t use creativity in a way to connect with audiences, they didn’t try to stand out, they didn’t do anything really except enrich their agencies and probably waste time in endless meetings talking about their shitty ad.

So next time spend $14 million dollars on thousands of cable ads or 20 more seasons of “Is It Cake?”

Better yet…just ask Ryan Reynolds for some advice. 

Greetings fellow marketers

Here at the FYMD network we exist to shine a light on the heroic efforts of the global marketing communications community. 

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