Taco Bell: SUPER DELICIOUS INGREDIENT FORCE

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Consumer Engagement

Advertiser: YUM! BRANDS

Product/Service: TACO BELL

Agency: DRAFTFCB

Date of First Appearance: May 18 2010

Entrant Company: DRAFTFCB, Chicago, USA

Entry URL: http://www.sdif.com

Executive Creative Director of North America: Tom O'Keefe (Draftfcb)

Senior Vice President/Executive Creative Director: Teddy Brown (Draftfcb Irvine)

Senior Vice President/Group Creative Director: Jeff Maerov (Draftfcb Irvine)

Vice President/Associate Creative Director: Berk Wassman (Draftfcb Chicago)

Vice President/Associate Creative Director: Todd Durston (Draftfcb Chicago)

Vice President/Content Director: John Bleeden (Draftfcb Chicago)

Art Director: Gordan Sang (Draftfcb Chicago)

Senior Vice President/Creative Director: Pat Durkin (Draftfcb Chicago)

Content Director: Scott Davis (Draftfcb Irvine)

Executive Vice President/Group Management Director: Rahul Roy (Draftfcb Chicago)

Senior Vice President/Group Management Director: Sean Hardwick (Draftfcb Irvine)

Account Director: Leila Cesario (Draftfcb Irvine)

Production Company: Continuity Studios (Continuity Studios)

Production Company: Inside Job (Inside Job)

Sound Design: Joe Flood (Inside Job)

Animator: Neal Adams (Continuity Studios)

Media placement: Webisode - Online (YouTube) - 18 May 2010

Media placement: Webisode - Online (YouTube) - 27 July 2010

Media placement: Webisode - Online (YouTube) - 30 November 2010

Media placement: Microsite - Online - 18 May 2010

Media placement: Social Media - Online (Facebook) - 18 May 2010

Media placement: Social Media - Online (Twitter) - 18 May 2010

Media placement: Social Media - Online (Flicker) - 18 May 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Our objective was to increase consumer brand engagement for Taco Bell’s core consumer group of 18-24 year olds. Though this group universally loves Taco Bell’s unique, flavourful food, they weren’t engaging with the brand. Highly cynical and discriminating of advertising, this target’s lack of trust keeps them from establishing a relationship with a brand, and this cynicism is exactly what we used to shape our creative idea.



Creative Execution

We created a campaign that was honest, self-deprecating and blatant in its intention to advertise. Introducing Taco Bell’s Super Delicious Ingredient Force. Ten ingredient-based super heroes who blatantly shill for Taco Bell. The Force was launched via webisodes on Taco Bell’s YouTube page. From there they infiltrated every corner of the social media world in a way that no other brand has. In fact, each member of the Force had their own Facebook page where they chatted live with fans and directed them to other social media channels to continue the conversation. Such as Twitter, where Commander Seasoned Beef sent daily tweets. And Flickr, where Incredibean posted vacation photos. The Super Delicious Ingredient Force offered a seemingly endless social media experience, taking Taco Bell’s brand engagement to a place it’s never been.



Results and Effectiveness

Just days after launch, hundreds of thousands of fans began proclaiming their love for the Force. Industry blogs and pop culture related sites also followed suit. And in just six months, brand engagement jumped where we saw the time people spent engaging with Taco Bell online went from 2,000 hours to 77,000. The Force had grown consumer brand engagement by a whopping 37 times, making the Super Delicious Ingredient Force far and above Taco Bell’s greatest social media success. In addition, an unintended expression of engagement came from a dramatic jump of Taco Bell’s Facebook fans from 900,000 to 4.6 million.