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Connecting a claw machine to the internet to create fan engagement for one of America’s most beloved snacks

Agency Partner

The Marketing Arm

Client

Doritos

Services

Creative Direction, Design, Animation, Technology

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CHALLENGE

Snacks and gaming are inexorably tied together, so it’s only natural that a snack brand so loved as Doritos would use gaming as a way of engaging users with a new product: Doritos Mix, a combination of four unique chips in one bag. But such brand tie-ins are a dime-a-dozen; how can we use technology to create unforgettable experiences?

SOLUTION

In partnership with Doritos brand agency The Marketing Arm (TMA), we were tasked with updating classic arcade experiences for the connected age of gaming in channels both digital and physical. To do so, we matched retro gaming experiences with hand-built technology, Twitch group play, analog ingenuity, and an anything-is-possible spirit—all resulting in a series of wide-reaching, first-ever achievements.
Twitch is the largest community of gaming enthusiasts on the planet, and we wanted them to have an E3-level experience through a special Twitch functionality called group play. But before Twitch could play the claw machine, we had to build one. And it had to be perfect.

We found a US-based claw machine manufacturer and worked with them to update the firmware for our experiment. We then connected a Raspberry Pi to control the i/o of the claw itself. With several types of prizes, we needed the ability to distinguish and associate prizes with users. So we built a ramp to guide won prizes towards a prize gate with an RFID scanner connected to an Arduino which was also connected to our Raspberry Pi. If a prize ever failed to scan, the gate would kick the prize ball backwards up the ramp every five seconds until it scanned.

We used dual 4K GoPros to stream the feed of the machine to Twitch, where users could use chat to control the machine, casting votes on which way the claw should move with each turn. Twitch gaming influencers rallied users together on their streams, organizing moves and actually succeeding together.

KRMA at E3

Live at E3 with Steve Aoki & Wiz Khalifa

As E3 drew near, Doritos’ agency, TMA, approached us to reimagine our virtual games as physical machines in two separate forms to support the massive Doritos presence at the conference, hosting performances from Steve Aoki, Wiz Khalifa, Big Boi and others.

We began by rescaling our games to live on a 45-foot LED screen, complemented by a six-foot joystick and giant functional buttons fabricated by partners Union Digital, and running on our code—all amounting to the world’s largest arcade cabinet, floating above a 60-foot stage where the musicians were performing.

RESULTS

Over an 8 week long promotional campaign, we saw incredible engagement with Dorito’s active fan base engaging in all three phases of the campaign. We gave away 45 cruises to lucky winners, and 34 lucky fans won a new Xbox, along with a bunch of other fun prizes.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • 8-Week-Long Promotion
  • 325k Unique Website Sessions
  • 3.5 Million Page Views
  • Average Time Spent: 6 Minutes
  • 39,166 Registered Users

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