If you haven't entered Asylum 626 yet, you should. Goodby, B-Reel Films and Doritos have returned promoting two new products that they're bringing back from the dead: Doritos Black Pepper Jack and Smoked Cheddar BBQ. The site is only open from 6pm to 6am, just like last year's Hotel 626. And visitors to the Asylum can only participate in 85% of the experience without purchasing the product... The remaining 15% can only be accessed through entering a code on the back of a Doritos bag.
The original Hotel 626 won Gold at Cannes last year, so how do you improve on that? Here's what Goodby CD Hunter Hindman said in Creativity:
Creativity: What were you most concerned with in terms of carrying out the legacy you started with the first project? Before you started, did you already have some ideas in terms of stepping up the game?
Hunter Hindman: Sequels are tricky things. When we started to research the new 626, we found something interesting. Most movie sequels are flops. But most video game sequels are considered better than the original. So that's where we took our inspiration. Very few people would debate that Halo 2 was better than the original Halo. The Grand Theft Auto franchise gets better with each release. And a lot of the reason why is that technology allows for a deeper, more immersive experience. Graphics are better. Game play gets more intuitive. Story lines are sharper. A mythology is built upon.
Good stuff.
Teens are the primary audience: engage the user of the product vs. the shopping parents. And a quick search through YouTube on the whole 626 line infers that the effort is successful at doing just that.