Article
Taco Bell ramps up food truck tour via Twitter
The social media site allows the chain to solicit suggestions for events and announce upcoming locations.
August 18, 2009
*Click herefor a slideshow of the Taco Bell Truck's tour stops.
Food trucks are nothing new, but restaurants taking their menu mobile is a growing trend. Burgerville, for example, recently started sending a food truck around Portland, Ore.
Taco Bell's food truck has been ahead of the curve, giving away selected menu items at special events across the country for about two decades. Where the company is following the trend is using social media site Twitter to connect fans with the truck's locations. For example, the Kogi BBQ Truck is known for tweeting its locations around the Los Angeles area.
Will Bortz, senior manager of public relations and sponsorships for Taco Bell Corp., said the company launched its Twitter site as a way to unveil its new truck since its core demographic is active on the site.
"It seemed to be all the right makings of a nice equation that people would really gravitate to, and that's what we've seen," he said.
Twitter expands reach
In the past, the Taco Bell Truck has appeared at events sponsored by the company, from Major League Baseball games to Boys & Girls Clubs events. This year, the company decided to add more stops and to use Twitter to seek consumers' input about those locations.
Since adding the @TacoBellTruck address on Twitter, the site has attracted more than 4,500 followers and about 150 requests per week for the truck to visit various cities, Bortz said.
Bortz said he likes that Twitter enables two-way conversation with fans and that the brand's message can reach a large number of people.
"Those tweets are pretty powerful. With 140 characters, it's very easy for people to have a great conversation with you — and you go back and forth very quickly (especially compared to e-mail)," he said. "This is a real direct way to get a hold of us."
Twitter also allows the company to transmit its next location to many more people than the 4,500 on its followers list. Some of @TacoBellTruck's followers have a half-million to a million of their own followers, expanding the message's reach exponentially if one of those followers re-tweets the post.
"The scope and the scale and the reach really grows quickly," Bortz said.
Beyond partnership events
In the past, Taco Bell relied on its PR and marketing agencies to identify events where the truck would visit. With Twitter, the company now solicits suggestions from fans in the regions it plans to visit.
For example, the truck was scheduled to stop at the MLB's All-Star Game in St. Louis in June. Previously, the truck would have been shipped out and return as quickly as possible. This year, the company decided to add stops between the All-Star Game and its next event at the Summer X Games in Los Angeles.
Taco Bell organized stops at other MLB stadiums on the way to St. Louis, including some Colorado Rockies' games because a franchisee is part owner of the team. Then Fox sports announcer Joe Buck invited the truck via Twitter to stop under the St. Louis Arch.
The company posted its destinations on Twitter and accepted requests for stops along the way, while other followers used the site to find out where to visit the truck. The truck stopped at 14 events in between the All-Star Game and the X Games.
The Taco Bell Truck's next tour will center around MTV's pre-Video Music Awards tour, with stops in Chicago, Boston and Baltimore. The Taco Bell Truck's upcoming tour kicks off in Chicago Aug. 25 at an MTV-hosted event, and the company is still looking for events along the East Coast.
The company filters each request it receives via Twitter to determine each is a legitimate organized event. Through Twitter, the truck already plans to stop at Boys & Girls Club event in Philadelphia thanks to a request from Philadelphia Eagles DeSean Jackson.
Twitter also connected Taco Bell with Drew Olanoff, who was recently diagnosed with cancer and started the Web sitewww.blamedrewscancer.comto allow anyone to blame his cancer for anything negative.
Bortz said the company liked Olanoff's idea of turning something negative into a positive and is now partnering with him on a cancer fundraising event in Philadelphia during the truck's upcoming tour.
Without the Twitter site, Bortz said the company was not likely to know of many of the extra events where it now plans to stop. The site also expands its partnership connections. For example, Taco Bell is an official sponsor of Major League Baseball, but the connection with Fox's Buck came through Twitter, not through that partnership.
"Twitter is a really good connector," Bortz said. "It creates a nice synergy for us to work with our broadcast partners, with athletes, with celebrities and with regular folks that just love the brand."
Free food rewards fans
As for the purpose of the food truck itself, that hasn't changed. The Taco Bell Truck has always given away full-size menu times, tailoring the offerings to the occasion. For example, the truck gave out items from the chain's Volcano line-up at the All-Star Games and items from its better-for-you Fresco line at a birthday event for the mayor of Oklahoma City.
Giving away the food as a way to connect with the brand's fans rather than selling it is an important purpose for the truck.
"For us, we find getting out there and giving it away for free is a lot more of a powerful invitation than just getting out there and charging for it.," Bortz said. "I'm sure that we could do that, but we have our brick-and-mortar stores where you can go buy food. This is something that should be rewarding people."
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