Why Influencers are the Key to Your Next Social Media Movement
Let’s be honest — the majority of us marketers have a pretty substantial brand crush on Taco Bell.
Their social marketing strategy should serve as is an example to us all: making personal connections pays off (in legions of fans, 10.5 million to be exact). In 2012, Taco Bell reported an 8% increase in U.S. same-store sales, as compared to a 1.8% fall in sales for McDonald’s. Clearly, their laser-sharp focus on engagement is working.
A recent campaign highlights Taco Bell’s marketing prowess: in March, they sent 1,000 influencers in seven cities “breakfast phones” to prepare the world for the unveiling of their breakfast menu. The lucky recipients of these pre-paid, sliding-keyboard-equipped, middle-school-throwback phones received a slew of calls and texts from Taco Bell headquarters sending them on various missions — including Instagram or Twitter competitions to create the best Waffle Taco meme, musical number, or haiku. Prizes were bits and pieces of every Taco Bell lover’s dream: Crunchwrap bedsheets, Waffle Taco hoodies, free breakfast for a year, and even a trip to California to visit Taco Bell HQ.
They created one golden ticket opportunity after another, making their fans eager to please the hand that fed them.
One such influencer, Adam Chandler, recounts the experience:
“I immediately plugged in my breakfast phone, and while it charged, I imagined all the noble missions I’d run for God and Crunchwrap. Put a dead fish on Eric Schlosser’s car? Consider it done. Fake a seizure at a Mickey D’s during prime Egg McMuffin hour? Just get me some Pop Rocks.”(x)
So, how do you pull a Taco Bell and take your customers from blasé to plotting to conquer the world for you?
Don’t be afraid to get weird. Waffle-taco-air-freshener level weird. In this day and age, you’ve got to think outside the box (or as Taco Bell would say: outside the bun) to make an impression. Do something unprecedented, and do it with flair.
Of their 1.27 million followers on twitter and 10.5 million fans on Facebook, Taco Bell only chose 1,000 people to receive breakfast phones. They took the time to hand-pick the most engaged individuals in order to get the biggest return possible on the time and resources they invested in the campaign. They were strategic about choosing the recipients, and the exclusivity motivated people to be vocal about their love for the brand. It gave them something to brag about.
While your breakfast phone is being boring, my breakfast phone is chilling on the beach. #breakfastphone #LiveMas pic.twitter.com/vSjtyqzbGo
— Jelly&Day (@JellyAndDay1) March 20, 2014
The pre-paid phones gave advocates exclusive access to Taco Bell headquarters. Taco Bell dropped all barriers — the phones could even be used to call HQ and speak to a team of five team members fielding calls in the newsroom. “We just wanted to do something that would be really personal,” said Tressie Lieberman, director of digital marketing. “We’re calling them every day. You never know when the phone will ring.”
Through the breakfast phone campaign, Taco Bell became more than just a brand or fast-food joint. It became a friend—that one friend that calls at odd times and is trying to get you to help with their social media campaign—but, nevertheless, a friend.
By being bold, selective, and human, Taco Bell transformed their fans into an army of loud-and-proud brand advocates — superfans who would stop at nothing to spread the Taco Bell gospel.
In a move as inspirational as the speech in Braveheart, they elevated a waffle-wrapped piece of meat into a movement.
They created a direct line to their most valuable influencers and leveraged their followers in a way that resulted in a huge volume of user-generated content. In the first ten days alone, Taco Bell’s campaign hashtag, #WakeUpLiveMás, generated more than 16,000 tweets (Check out the hilarity: #BreakfastPhone & #WakeUpLiveMas). The content contributed to over one billion social impressions of the new breakfast menu.
We should all aspire to make a little Taco Bell breakfast phone magic for our own brands.
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