Taco Bell Launches Doritos Locos Tacos Using Integrated Social Media Campaign

corrieabird    October 19, 2012

Taco Bell partnered with Doritos to launch a new product Doritos Locos Tacos – a hard shelled taco made of Nacho Cheese Doritos Chips. Taco Bell determined that “80-90% of Taco Bell-related conversations were taking place on Twitter” they used this information to plan and develop their pre-launch campaign.  In February 2012 the Taco Bell pre-launch Twitter campaign began.  The pre-launch tweets generated interest around the new product as well as provided the company valuable feedback from their customers. From the Twitter conversations Taco Bell was able to determine that the negative conversations about the new product was in fact that it was not available in Taco Bell restaurants, ultimately building excitement and anticipation for the new product. The social media analytics from the successful pre-launch campaign assisted in determining how much product to produce for their official product launch.  Taco Bell used their analytics to assist with product production, distribution and marketing strategies.

In March 2012, Taco Bell launched the new Doritos Locos Taco and continued dialogue with their customers using social media. They took the social media campaign one step further by taking the campaign outdoors using Aerva’s software platform, using digital signage that showed live tweets and Facebook activity in Times Square, New York and on Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California. Taco Bell’s social media marketing campaign assisted in selling “over 200 million Doritos Locos Tacos”, ultimately becoming Taco Bell’s most successful product launch to date.

Taco Bell Averva Case Study Video

Lessons for Others
Using social media for product development is a great opportunity to open up dialogue with your customers. Giving your customers a social network for dialog can be a cost effective way to build long term relationships with your customers. It can also result in faster product adoption as well as higher market share and revenue.

Web References:
Taco Bell Analyzes Social Media – And Sells 200 Million Tacos – Net Base Forrester Groundswell

Taco Bell Selects Aerva for a Successful Product Launch Using Social Media Campaign on Billboards

Aerva Taco Bell – Digital Out-Of-Home Twitter Campaign

Submitted by : Corrie Bird, SMBP Student University of Waterloo

To contact the author of this entry please email corriebird@hotmail.ca

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.