Country music star Tim McGraw’s moment of joy is putting his kids to bed every night happy and healthy, waking them up every morning happy and healthy, sending them off to school and knowing that they’re having a good life. McGraw’s revelation can be heard online in a special section of the Lay’s web site, www.lays.com, developed by New York-based Atmosphere BBDO as part of the Lay’s brand and Make-A-Wish Foundation’s “Share the Joy” campaign.
The campaign, which runs through May 31, asks consumers to share their moments of joy on the website in the form of a video, essay or photo, with the goal of raising money to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation continue its efforts to grant wishes to deserving children. For each submission, the Make-A-Wish Foundation will receive $1, up to a maximum of $460,000, from the Lay’s brand. The “Share the Joy” program is the first effort as part of the multi-year partnership between the Lay’s brand and the world’s largest wish-granting organization.
“The Lay’s brand has long celebrated the joy found in the simple pleasures of life. This partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation is the continuation of these efforts, and through the support and the mission of the Make-A-Wish Foundation we hope people nationwide recognize their own power to help grant a wish,” said Jared Dougherty, Frito-Lay spokesperson.
The campaign kicked off last month with McGraw performing in New York for Make-A-Wish child Taylor Hobson of Bryan, Texas. Taylor, who was diagnosed with Spina bifida at birth, has had a lifelong wish to meet McGraw. Footage from Hobson’s wish granting event and McGraw’s special concert performance is featured on lays.com. His performance was also broadcast exclusively at participating Wal-Mart Supercenters on March 31. While people enjoyed the concert, they had the opportunity to taste Lay’s Potato Chips.
According to Cabot Norton, creative director, Atmosphere BBDO, the concert footage was shot by Lay’s in high definition, though what viewers see online is actually in standard definition format. The high definition footage was needed to create the video of the concert to air on the Wal-Mart Network.
The lays.com site, which is being promoted on-bag and through a television campaign, offers visitors other entertaining content, including a Q&A with McGraw, his latest music video and videos from the syndicated TV program HomeTeam. As part of its ongoing efforts to share moments of joy, last month Lay’s joined HomeTeam to help deserving families across the country begin a new chapter in their lives. Hosted by former Apprentice star Troy McClain, HomeTeam is a weekly program that provides a real-life look at people realizing their dream of becoming first-time homeowners. HomeTeam has recently been renewed for a third season.
Design challenges
The sunflower motif is prevalent throughout the website because last year the Lay’s brand announced it had reduced the saturated fat in its potato chips by more than 50 percent by switching to sunflower oil, a healthier oil. When visitors are asked to contribute their moment of joy, they are asked to create a floret on a giant sunflower. (Sunflowers contain thousands of tiny flowers or florets.) In addition to submitting their own moment of joy, visitors can scroll over other people’s florets and read them.
“The site was first and foremost a design challenge,” explained Norton. “Many corporate websites tend to be overly dense, incredibly dry experiences. But Lay’s, by its very nature, represents fun and joyousness and a lightness of spirit, and we wanted to make sure that it all came across on the site [and, honestly, achieving that without lapsing into clich– and cheesiness was a challenge unto itself].”
He said another design challenge beyond just aesthetics was ensuring that the user experience be as natural and intuitive as possible. “Anytime you invite a user to participate in and contribute to the experience–like we’re doing for Share the Joy–you assume responsibility for making it easy to do so. In this case we tried to keep all of the functionality very simple and clean.
“Once all of the elements were designed and the flow of the site was articulated, Rokkan (New York, N.Y.), our outstanding production partner, incorporated the Flash components and made sure that everything worked seamlessly together. For the ‘Share the Joy’ section, they did a great job of making sure that the transition into the virtual sunflower was elegant and natural.”
He said the creative team is pleased so far by the level of participation with Share the Joy. “It’s cool to see people really engage with the program and bring it to life. Every submission to the site results in a direct contribution to Make-A-Wish.”
