Taco Bus EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
FULL SERVICE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING | GRAPHIC DESIGN | BRAND PROMOTION
For over ten years, Taco Bus has been serving authentic Mexican street food in Tampa Bay. Starting with a single food truck (actually a renovated school bus), Chef René Valenzuela has grown Taco Bus into a successful chain of restaurants. As Taco Bus continues to open in new areas that are unfamiliar with the brand, it is important that their “Keeping it Chido” philosophy connects with their customers.
Marketing Objective
Capture a dominant share of the fast casual Mexican restaurant market for every area we operate in.
Marketing Strategy
Position the Taco Bus brand as the cool and authentic Mexican restaurant choice for fast casual dining.
Tactics
To execute our marketing strategy, we created a series of experiential marketing campaigns and promotions that would offer “chido” ways for Taco Bus customers to engage with the brand. These events and promotions would occur across all locations. One such event, The El Jefe Burrito Eating Championship, is the subject of this case study.
The Concept
The El Jefe Burrito Eating Championship was created to be an annual event occurring on National Burrito Day, which is the first Thursday in April. The overall theme would be based on the popular Mexican sport of Lucha Libre.
Activities
Our activities were grouped into three phases, each with their own objective.
PRE-EVENT PHASE
The first phase was focused on building awareness of the event.
Media Outreach / PR
Absolute Mobile Solutions worked with our media contacts as well as market influencers such as bloggers and social media personalities to promote awareness of the event. As a result, the event was featured on radio, television, and newspapers as well as numerous blogs.
- ABC Action News Article - Calling all professional eaters, the Taco Bus ‘El Jefe Burrito Eating Championship’ is here
- ABC Action News Article - Here’s how to celebrate National Burrito Day with freebies and discounts
- Tampa Bay Times - Days left to qualify for Tampa burrito eating championship
- Creative Loafing Coverage - Think you can eat a burrito called El Jefe in under 15 minutes?
- WFLA Daytime - El Jefe Eating Championship Official Rules and Regulations
Website/Digital
Absolute Mobile Solutions designed an official El Jefe Burrito Eating Championship landing page with the rules, waiver and all the details about the big event. We monitored contestants and qualifiers and used social media as the connection between Taco Bus customers and the competition itself. In the two weeks leading up to the event, Taco Bus had more than a 567% increase in traffic to the site from social media alone!
Social Media Marketing
Starting with a content and editorial calendar, the marketing team scheduled content for delivery over a timeline several weeks leading up to the event. We used multiple channels and interacted daily with Taco Bus followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. By monitoring reviews and customer feedback consistently, Absolute Mobile Solutions was able to reconnect Taco Bus with its clients and build the hype for the upcoming competition.
In-store Promotion
Starting with the theme of Lucha Libre, our creative team designed creative for the event that embodied Taco Bus’s brand essence. This creative included in-store promotion items such as posters, flyers, and event buttons.
EVENT PHASE
Event Marketing / Experiential Marketing
Some elements designed for the campaign included:
The Championship Belt
The grand prize featured a fully customized, one-of-a-kind belt that was created by our design team. The winner who finished their 2.5 lbs burrito first would be given this Wrestling-style championship belt with custom, etched plates to commemorate their victory. Our team started the design by sketching out the elements with pencil on paper and digitized the renderings afterward.
El Jefe Mascot and Costume
To interact even more with Taco Bus fans, Absolute Mobile Solutions decided to bring the aspect of the Lucha to life and created the El Jefe Lucha mascot. We designed a customized, hand-sewn Lucha mask and ordered it from a master crafter from Mexico. Equipped with a purple cape, bright yellow boots, and the El Jefe Championship belt, El Jefe made appearances on social media, and in the streets, to help promote the event!
Event Banners
For the day of the event, Absolute Mobile Solutions designed and printed two large event banners that were to serve as backdrops for the competition and the registration desk.
Social Media Marketing
Snapchat has become one of the most popular social media platforms of late. We wanted to tap into the exclusivity of having our very own Taco Bus geolocation-activated filter. Anybody who visited the location that day could take a Snap with our customized design and share it with their friends with the message, “I Survived El Jefe!”
Event Management
On the day of the event, Absolute Mobile Solutions gave full service and support for several components of the event to ensure the competition went smoothly, and that it was a fun experience for everyone who attended! By employing our team members to handle the logistics for the major areas of the event, from registration to video production, the 2017 El Jefe Burrito Eating Championship was a success! Our Event Management services included:
POST-EVENT PHASE
The final phase encompassed activities after the event focused on...
Bumper Sticker Design
Absolute Mobile Solutions wanted to create a limited-edition takeaway for anybody who attended the event. We created a customized bumper sticker and gave it to all the contestants and their friends and family who showed their support at the competition.
Video and Photo Marketing
Absolute Mobile Solutions also took care of the photography and videography services on site. Documenting every aspect of the event, the contestants, we created a photo and video gallery that captured the competition’s spirit! When the horn went off the and competition started, Absolute Mobile Solutions provided a Facebook Live Video and broadcasted it on the Taco Bus! Absolute also recruited judges from the Tampa Bay community to make sure the competition was won fairly and squarely!
CAMPAIGN RESULTS
THE NUMBERS
- El Jefe Sales - +30.6% in one month!
- Reputology improvement - +13% average online customer satisfaction rating
- Total social media post impressions – 56K+
- Social media traffic to the website increased by 567%
“This was such a spectacular event, with a large attendance! We are looking forward to next year’s competition and growing it even more, in celebration of National Burrito Day. Absolute Mobile Solutions, through tireless marketing and event promotion, were able to bring success and elevate the Taco Bus brand and its relationship with its customers."
Heather Chaudhry
Director of Marketing & Operations - Taco Bus
AWARDS WON FOR EL JEFE MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Award-Winning Experiential Marketing
Absolute Marketing Solutions is a proud winner of a Platinum dotCOMM award for the El Jefe Burrito Eating Championship, an experiential marketing campaign that spanned 6 weeks and celebrated National Burrito Day.
The dotCOMM Awards is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), one of the largest, oldest, and most respected evaluators of creative work in the marketing and communication industry.
Absolute Marketing Solutions is one of two agencies worldwide who earned the Platinum award in the category of Interactive Brand Experience, and the only agency in Tampa to be awarded a Platinum award within any category in 2017.
The dotCOMM Awards is an international competition honoring excellence in web creativity and digital communication. The competition spotlights the role of creatives in the dynamic, constantly evolving web.
Gold MarCom Award
MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work and generosity of industry professionals.
Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the largest, most-respected creative competitions in the world. Each year about 6,000 print and digital entries are submitted from dozens of countries. Absolute was honored with a Gold MarCom for the El Jefe Campaign.
Silver Davey Award
The Davey Awards is led by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). in 2017, it received nearly 4,000 entries worldwide. The Davey Awards honor the “Davids” of creativity, the finest small agencies, firms and companies worldwide.
David defeated the giant Goliath with a big idea and a little rock - the sort of thing small agencies do each year. Absolute was honored with a Silver Davey for the El Jefe Campaign in 2017.