Cheetos Launches A Brand New Metaverse Experience
7 November 2022
One of the world’s most beloved brands has launched a new immersive metaverse experience, and fans all over the world are hungry to interact with one of their favorite snack icons, just in time for Halloween.
This week, Frito-Lay unveiled their new Cheetos-themed digital suburban neighborhood called Chesterville, set inside Meta’s Horizon Worlds. Frito-Lay is the $10 billion convenience food division of PepsiCo, Inc., and this is the brand's first venture into virtual reality.
I had the chance to talk with Stacy Taffet, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Frito-Lay, about how her company is entering the metaverse and the opportunities she sees for brands who want to create more immersive experiences for their fans.
Here’s What You Can Do Inside Chesterville
Inside Chesterville, players can embrace their inner Chester Cheetah and stir up Halloween mischief. As part of the game, you can complete tasks around the neighborhood and earn points on the Chesterville “mischief meter.”
The tasks and activities include:
- Using Chester's Wand to brand the neighborhood
- Flinging Cheetle-fied paper towels
- Interacting with other players
- Getting a speed boost with the Flamin' Hot Cheetos accelerator
The ultimate goal of the game is to gain access to Cheetos Hill’s spooky mansion, where fans get the chance to vote on their favorite "ghost of Cheetos' past" to help bring a flavor that’s no longer available back from the dead. Fans can choose from three possible options to resurrect in real life: Cheetos Flamin' Hot Pepper Puffs, Cheetos Flamin' Hot Chipotle Ranch, or Cheetos Nashville Hot snacks.
“Cheetos has a young, passionate fan base,” Stacy says. “The brand is actually about bringing playful mischief to life, so when we thought about when to enter the Metaverse, we thought a really fun time would be Halloween because it allows us to bring the spirit of the brand to life in a way that will add value in the metaverse environment.”
What’s Next for Frito-Lay in the Metaverse
Stacy foresees a future where more and more brands will be joining the metaverse.
After this initial Chesterville experience, Frito-Lay is kicking around new ideas for continuing to create immersive experiences for their fans.
Chesterville will live on, and Frito-Lay would also like to bring their fans a “farm-to-bag” experience. The brand wants to showcase how its products are made, from, e.g., getting the potato out of the ground to creating a product you can buy on the shelf. The metaverse may present opportunities to bring consumers into that world and let them experience the full product lifecycle.
The brand is also exploring the possibility of creating new NFTs for Cheetos fans.
“We will give our fans exclusive experiences that they can't find in other places,” Stacy says. “I'm hopeful that as the metaverse and Web3 advance, we will still be able to deliver the same brand value and experiences that people expect from their favorite brands. I'm very hopeful for what metaverse technology will unlock.”
You can watch my full conversation with Stacy Taffet, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Frito-Lay, here:
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Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity.
He is a best-selling author of over 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations.
He has a combined following of 4 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world.
Bernard’s latest book is ‘Generative AI in Practice’.
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