News

Taco Bell CMO sole restaurant industry player on NRF Top 25 list

January 5, 2017

Taco Bell Chief Marketing Officer Marisa Thalberg was the only restaurant industry leader named to the National Retail Federation's 2017 list of 25 people shaping retail's future, according to a news release. Thalberg oversees Taco Bell's social, digital and strategic marketing efforts, including a successful Super Bowl-related campaign to introduce the brand's combination of a quesadilla and chalupa, known as quesalupa. 

She was also behind the chain's Cinco de Mayo Snapchat lens that drew 224 million users in one day by giving the public a chance to convert their headshot photos into hard-shell tacos. Those campaigns along with the brand's TacoBot, which takes orders and answers menu questions online, helped elevate Thalberg to the list of pivotal retail players, according to a release. 

"Retail is driven by millions of talented and passionate individuals who are constantly changing the industry, and The List 2017 captures the very best of people making an impact," NRF Foundation Executive Director Ellen Davis said in the announcement. "Each in their own way, this year's honorees are shaping retail's future and emulate the very best of what retail represents."
 
Thalberg and other innovators will be honored Jan. 15 at the NRF Foundation Gala in New York City. That evening, NRF will also recognize Nike Chairman, president and CEO Mark Parker as "The Visionary," a new honor for retail industry leaders, who have accrued a long record as business change agents.