Pepsico
A global gaming community for Cheetos International.
In 2010 Cheetos international was undergoing major changes. Globally the brand was refocussing its efforts to an older target market which required new branding and digital engagement strategies. It was during this process that the brand saw an opportunity to consolidate their international website plans into a single centrally managed solution.
Jan 2010 - August 2010
Completed at Safari Sundays
Website and custom CMS
As project lead I was responsible for leading all research, strategy and UX design. This project was completed in partnership with Your Majesty (UI design and development) and Arcadium (licensed games). My deliverables included:
Project planning and scoping
Literature study
User interviews
UX strategy
User flows
Wireframes
Art direction
User testing
Deployment management
MY ROLE
CHALLENGE
Cheetos wanted to create an engaging and easy to manage global platform for its international markets that was inspiring to tweens (11- 13 yr olds) while not alienating their existing customers (8 to 10 year olds).
With participating markets from the Middle East to Central American the final concept needed to be both technically feasible and culturally considerate.
The final concept of the Cheetos Global Gaming Community emerged from a 4 week discovery phase that included parent+child interviews in Mexico City, a global stakeholder workshop and literature review of regional consumer studies.
Design was broken into 4 day sprints that allowed work to progress while each round of creative was reviewed by local legal councils.
APPROACH
Key insights taken from our discovery phase included:
Tap into, don't create behaviors - Online tween activities were dominated by video content, gaming and social media. In order to connect with our audience any concept would need to closely align with one of these behaviors.
A social experience that works for the individual - Friends are a huge part of a tweens identity however being able to act as an individual would also be hugely important to the success of the platform.
One solution for all markets - The unpredictable internet speeds in some markets meant complexity of any solution would need to be managed.
Achievement of global adoption would require the management of the site to be fast and intuitive, suitable to all levels of technical literacy.
DISCOVERY
Focussing heavily on the fun elements of the brand, we created four richly detailed gaming worlds, one for each of the most popular themes amongst tweens: sports, adventure, theme parks and music.
While complex in appearance the functionality of the world was actually very basic consisting of up to 7 hotspots that could be turned on or off depending on the availability of games and promotions.
CONCEPT
Each world contained between 3-5 hotspots and 2-4 promo tiles that could be easily activated or updated to link to a new game, competition or product launch.
Each hotspots was intentionally camouflaged against its background to encourage exploration. Each interaction triggered a vivid animation.
Users were able to create or join tribes and challenge each other in gameplay to collect points. Points were used for promotions that including both physical and digital prizes.
Adopted by 30 countries and translated into 15 different languages the new platform increasing site traffic by an average 135% within 3 months of launch.