Case Study: Frito‑Lay achieves faster, cheaper TV commercial production during COVID‑19 with Popular Pays

How Frito-Lay created a TV commercial during COVID-19

Frito‑Lay, the leading savory snack company behind Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos and SunChips, faced a major production challenge when COVID‑19 halted traditional shoots and threatened its summer media buy. To adapt, Frito‑Lay partnered with Popular Pays and used Popular Pays’ distributed network of creators and software platform to rapidly produce a TV commercial remotely.

Popular Pays enabled Frito‑Lay to move from concept to live in six weeks (a roughly 50% reduction from the typical 12–16 week timeline), cut production costs by about 30%, and scale creative output—collaborating with 25 creators to produce 118 video assets (≈5x pieces per creator). The campaign ran on TV and YouTube and delivered strong attention metrics (96.36 attention score; 122 attention index, 22% above average), with improved impressions and engagement versus prior traditional campaigns.

Frito-Lay

Allison Martino

Digital Account Manager