Snack Chat

What do Frito-Lay and Northeast Texas Girl Scouts Have in Common? Selling!

I remember a professor for a leadership program I was part of in college telling my class that the most effective volunteer programs are those that match volunteers’ talents and expertise with not-for-profit or community organizations’ specific needs. That simple yet powerful concept rang true for me recently, when I heard how Frito-Lay employees responded to the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas CEO’s challenge for them to use their “nonmonetary assets” to help the scouts. Frito-Lay employees offered up their selling skills. Specifically, they developed and led a program to teach Junior Girl Scouts skills to help make their upcoming annual cookie sales a success. 

It’s hard to think of a more natural partnership (and not just because both Frito-Lay and the Girl Scouts are renowned for their tasty products!): For the Girl Scouts, cookie sales help fund valuable programs – from troop outings to museums and parks to campsite maintenance to membership assistance for low-income girls. Just as importantly, cookie sales teach the scouts lifelong skills such as goal setting and decision making. And who better to help them make their cookie sales a success than Frito-Lay employees, who are known industry-wide for their selling expertise? Our employees sell, deliver and merchandise our snacks directly to individual stores to help ensure exceptional product freshness and customer service. This unique “direct-store delivery” system requires spending time getting to know each store manager, understanding local consumers’ needs and preferences, and working diligently to meet daily goals – all skills the Girl Scouts can use to help make selling cookies door-to-door successful. 

At the event, held last week at our South Dallas and Carrollton, Texas, sales offices, several top Frito-Lay sales associates led about 70 Girl Scouts in a variety of activities. For instance, they talked to the girls about the importance of knowing the product you are selling inside and out, and then led the Girl Scouts in a bingo game designed to help them learn nutritional facts, ingredients and other key information about the cookies. They also encouraged the girls to practice selling skills with each other, helping the Scouts respond to a variety of situations they might encounter with potential customers.

The employees who hosted this event plan to put their resources and ideas into an "activity-in-a-box" they will share with employees at Frito-Lay sites across the country to help them hold similar events next year with troops in their own communities. So the next time the Girl Scouts come to your door selling cookies, if you find their sales approach particularly convincing and order more cookies than in past years, you’ll know why! (Group photo from the event is below.)

- Katherine

Last Call - Crash the Super Bowl Consumer Voting Ends Jan. 30

Will a dog rule the day? Will a birthday wish come true? Or will a first date lead to Super Bowl ad success? You can help decide by voting for your favorite ads from among the 10 Doritos and Pepsi MAX finalists still competing as part of this year’s Crash the Super Bowl consumer-created ad contest. 

Of the 10 remaining finalist ads, six will receive airtime during the Super Bowl broadcast. And with a potential $5 million grand prize and the chance to do additional paid work for the brands on the line, there is a lot at stake for each of our 10 finalists. 

Don’t miss your chance to help decide which ads receive air time! The Crash the Super Bowl consumer voting phase ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 30. As a reminder, the 10 finalist ads include (in alphabetical order): 

• “Adam and Eve” by Stephen Schuster (Doritos)

• “Birthday Wish” by Heather Kasprzak (Doritos)

• “Elevator Girl” by Michael Doneger (Pepsi MAX)

• “First Date” by Nick Simotas (Pepsi MAX)

• “House Sitting” by Tynesha Williams (Doritos)

• “Love Hurts” by Brad Bosley (Pepsi MAX)

• “Pug Attack” by JR Burningham (Doritos)

• “The Best Part” by Tyler Dixon (Doritos)

• “Torpedo Cooler” by Brendan Hayward (Pepsi MAX)

• “Zero Calories? Psshh” by Brandy Gill (Pepsi MAX)

There are four ways to vote this year: through the official contest website, www.crashthesuperbowl.com, through smart phones at m.crashthesuperbowl.com, via Xbox LIVE® and through banner advertisements on select websites. Consumers can vote once per day, per brand, per platform. For more details, visit the contest website. 

Fan votes will determine two of the three spots that air for each brand, and Doritos and Pepsi MAX executives will each select a winning spot for their respective brands. Three Doritos ads and three Pepsi MAX ads – that’s the most ads we’ve ever aired as part of Crash the Super Bowl!

To see which ads ultimately prevail, tune in to the Super Bowl broadcast on Feb. 6 on FOX. 

- Alexia

New Doritos and Ruffles Flavors Make Great Game-Day Snacks!

Looking for a tasty new snack to wow your family and friends with on game day (or any day)? Then check out these three new flavors of Doritos and Ruffles, now available in stores nationwide:

• Doritos Pizza Supreme –- The classic Doritos tortilla chip combined with the great taste of pizza. Thanks to Frito-Lay's advanced "Flavor Plus" technology, you can actually taste all the different components of a supreme pizza!
• Ruffles Loaded Chili & Cheese and Ruffles Molten Hot Wings –- The crunch of Ruffles Original with the bold, hearty flavors of chili cheese and hot wings. Who needs a meal when you’ve got these to snack on?

Pizza, chili cheese fries and hot wings … Why go out to watch the game when you can bring the tastes of game day home? Of the three flavors, I’m most excited about the Ruffles Molten Hot Wings and can’t wait to try them for myself. Which flavor is your favorite?  

- Michael

Meet our Fan of the Week: Cristi King!

Each week, we’re featuring a new Frito-Lay Fan of the Week – a great way to highlight and reward our most passionate fans! If you would like to be part of our fan program, sign up here, and you just might be featured as a Fan of the Week in the future!

Congratulations to Cristi King (pictured below), our Frito-Lay Fan of the Week! We chose Cristi as this week’s fan of the week because of her love for Frito-Lay snacks – especially her favorite: LAY’S Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips! 

One of Cristi’s most memorable snacking moments is when her family took their first trip to the Lake of the Ozarks.  Everyone was packed in the car and loaded with snacks for the drive when, not long after they began their trip, her son tried to reach for the LAY’S Cheddar & Sour Cream chips, screaming, "Chips mama, CHIPS!"  He saw his mom put the chips in the car and, sharing his mom’s love for her favorite snack, could barely wait until they pulled out of the driveway to get his hands on the LAY’S!

Cristi and her family love to snack and always make Frito-Lay chips part of their family functions.  To make their snacking occasions even more interesting, she serves "Cristi’s 7 Layer Dip" and Tostitos at family gatherings. (Recipe below)

• Refried beans with taco seasoning

• Sour cream

• Tostitos All Natural Chunky Salsa - Mild

• Lettuce

• Shredded cheese

• Black olives

• Green onions

A quick and easy dinner option for her family has often been Tostitos piled high with their favorite toppings, making a delicious nachos platter.  They start with a plate full of Tostitos tortilla chips and top them with:

• Ground turkey

• Sour cream 

• Green onions

• Tomatoes

• Tostitos Smooth and Cheesy Dip

As a wife and mother of two children with a passion for cooking, Cristi is working hard to focus more on what goes in to her family’s snacks – a great step toward living a healthier lifestyle.  For so long, Cristi would purchase cheaper products to snack on, but found out those were not always the healthiest options.  By paying closer attention to what’s in her snacks, she realized her favorite Tostitos are made with just three ingredients.  So, whether she serves them as an after school snack, as nachos or with dips, Christi’s family is snacking healthier. And that’s very important to her!

Thank you, Cristi, for being a Frito-Lay fan and congrats on being this week’s Fan of the Week!  Find out more about Cristi by visiting her blog and Twitter page at:

Blog: The King's Court IV - Twitter Handle: @TheKingsCourtIV 

Check back next week to meet our next Fan of the Week, right here on Snack Chat!

- Kristin

Fritos Pie Remix is the Perfect Way to Celebrate National Pie Day on Sunday!

Did you know that Sunday, Jan. 23, is National Pie Day? Dedicated to the celebration of pie, it marks the perfect occasion to share our new Fritos Pie Remix website. Whether you’ve visited the site before or not, I think you’ll enjoy the new look and the high-quality videos we’ve recently added – including Braised Pot Roast Fritos Pie (pictured below) and Black-eyed Peas Fritos Pie!

For those new to the site, Fritos Pie Remix is a web-based series of cooking videos featuring Stephen Kalil, Frito-Lay’s executive chef, and Fritos corn chips. In each episode, Stephen remixes the popular Fritos Chili Pie using one or more "extreme" ingredients typically found in the kitchen to create something new and delicious.

To celebrate the formal launch of Fritos Pie Remix, we're asking our snack fans to submit their "extreme" ingredient ideas for the chance to win a year’s supply of Fritos and see Chef Stephen use their suggestion in an upcoming Fritos Pie Remix episode. To enter, visit www.FritosPieRemix.com through Jan. 27 and click on the “submit extreme ingredient” button to suggest an ingredient and the reason you think it would create an interesting flavor opportunity for Fritos Pie. The winning submission (ingredient and rationale) will be chosen by Chef Stephen and announced through Frito-Lay’s Twitter feed (@Fritolay) and here on Snack Chat.

I’ve had the opportunity to sample all of Chef Stephen’s remixed Fritos Pie recipes, and there isn’t a single one that I didn’t enjoy. My favorites? Probably Buffalo Chicken Fritos Pie and Vanilla-Caramel Corn Fritos Pie. These recipes are easy, tasty and a lot of fun to make. I hope that you’ll give them a try, let us know how they turn out, and share your own “extreme” ingredient ideas on www.FritosPieRemix.com! OK, now I'm hungry...

- Michael