Frito-Lay And Activision Announce $100,000 Scholarship Winner In Skylanders® "Choose And Name A New Hero" Promotion

PLANO, Texas, Sept. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America division and Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., today announced Phylicia Nakamoto, from Elk Grove, Calif., as the fan-selected winner of the Skylanders® "Choose and Name a New Hero" promotion. Her creatively-named video game character submission, High Five, is a royal dragonfly that is able to fly higher and faster than any other hero in Skylands. Phylicia will receive a $100,000 scholarship and High Five will be featured in the award-winning Skylanders® franchise.

Earlier this year, Frito-Lay and Activision gave fans the unique opportunity to choose and name a new hero that would appear in the upcoming Skylanders Trap Team™ game, which will be released on October 5, 2014 in North America. Three finalists were revealed in May, and consumers were invited to visit www.fritolay.com/skylanders to vote for their favorite one, resulting in Phylicia's High Five as the winning hero. This is the third Skylanders promotion between Activision and Frito-Lay, and each has given fans an exciting way to engage with the popular Skylanders franchise through specially-marked Frito-Lay variety packs of snacks.

"We are always looking for new ways to engage with families to inspire more fun," said Ram Krishnan, senior vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay. "This fan-driven relationship with Activision delivered on that goal by putting families in control of the game in a groundbreaking way."

To celebrate the launch of Skylanders Trap Team and High Five's debut in-game, Skylanders-thematic Frito-Lay variety packs will be available for purchase starting mid-October, while supplies last, at participating retail stores nationwide. Through December 31, 2014, consumers have the chance to win their very own High Five character exclusively through Frito-Lay variety packs.  To enter, consumers can scan specially-marked Classic Mix, Flavor Mix or Family Fun Mix packs with the Blippar augmented reality app. For the full rules and promotion details, please visit www.FritoLayGiveaway.com.

High Five is one of the most skilled sky racers of all the dragonflies.  But as the fifth son of the Royal High Flying Dragonflies, he was not allowed to enter any of the racing tournaments that took place each year because of his age.  Instead, he was forced to watch from the sidelines as his four older brothers competed for the coveted Trophy of Sparx, which legend has said holds magical properties.  One year, during the biggest racing event of the season, High Five learned that the Troll Racing Team had stolen the valuable trophy and were going to use the race to cover their escape.  He quickly took action, jumping into the race and using his amazing flying skills to weave and dodge his way to the front of the pack, where he caught up to the trolls and brought them down.  For his actions, High Five was given the Trophy of Sparx.  Even more importantly, he was made a Skylander, where he now helps protect Skylands from any evildoers.

In addition to the announcement of the fan-selected winner, Activision today also revealed due to overwhelming fan excitement and participation in the joint promotion with Frito-Lay, all three finalist characters will have a role in the new Skylanders Trap Team game. Families will enjoy taking to the high skies with fan-selected winner High Five, as well as finalists Bat Spin, a female bat with magical powers, and Flip Wreck, an adventurous battle-ready dolphin.

"Throughout this year's partnership program with Frito-Lay, we were impressed with just how much creativity and passion our fans demonstrated when imagining names for a new hero for the upcoming Skylanders Trap Team game," said John Coyne, senior vice president of consumer marketing, Activision. "In recognition of this creativity and enthusiasm, we decided all three finalists should come to life in the new game, and we couldn't be more excited to bring this surprise to our fans."

Skylanders Trap Team brings a ground-breaking innovation to the Skylanders franchise by reversing the magic of its signature Toys-To-Life™ play pattern to let kids bring life to toys. Skylanders Trap Team allows Portal Masters to seek out the most wanted villains in all of Skylands, defeat them and pull them out of the game into their living rooms by capturing them in magical Traps. Fans can then play as both heroes and villains who join the forces of good in an all-new adventure. And now, for the first time in franchise history with the tablet version of the game, fans can experience a full Skylanders game on the go, wherever and whenever they want.

Frito-Lay Classic Mix, Flavor Mix and Family Fun Mix 20-count variety packs contain America's favorite snacks in convenient servings, including: Lay's potato chips, SunChips multigrain snacks, Doritos tortilla chips, Cheetos cheese flavored snacks and Fritos corn chips. To unleash excitement at snack time, Frito-Lay and Skylanders join forces to help families create fun and special family moments.

For more details on the promotion and to learn more about the fan-selected winning character, visit www.fritolay.com/skylanders.

About Frito-Lay North America
Frito-Lay North America is the $13 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, http://www.fritolay.com, the Snack Chat blog, http://www.snacks.com, and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/fritolay.

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $66 billion in net revenue in 2013, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose – our goal to deliver top-tier financial performance while creating sustainable growth in shareholder value. In practice, Performance with Purpose means providing a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; finding innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce our operating costs; providing a safe and inclusive workplace for our employees globally; and respecting, supporting and investing in the local communities where we operate. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

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About the Skylanders® Franchise
The award-winning, $2 billion Skylanders franchise pioneered the Toys-to-Life category in 2011 with the debut of Skylanders Spyro's Adventure®. The game originated a new play pattern that seamlessly bridged physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms. In October 2012, Skylanders Giants™ further evolved the genre and added the mega-sized Giant Skylanders and LightCore® characters to the collection of interaction figures. Skylanders SWAP Force launched in October 2013 and introduced an all-new play pattern - swapability. The Skylanders franchise was the top selling kids' videogame of 2013¹, and is now one of the top 20 videogame franchises of all time². Skylanders Trap Team, the newest installment due out in North America on October 5, 2014, reverses the magic of bringing toys to life - incredibly letting kids pull characters out of the digital world into the physical world. For more information, please visit: www.skylanders.com and Activision.com/presscenter.

About Activision Publishing
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com. 

© 2014 Activision Publishing, Inc., SKYLANDERS, SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM, SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE, SKYLANDERS GIANTS, SKYLANDERS SPYRO'S ADVENTURE, LIGHTCORE, TOYS TO LIFE and ACTIVISION are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc.

¹According to The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Activision Blizzard internal estimates, including toys and Accessories
² According to The NPD Group and GfK Chart-Track

SOURCE Frito-Lay North America