To drive awareness and trial of its new Naked Chicken Chips, Taco Bell Canada is running an experience-focused campaign based on offering customers “extra menu” options to go with their crispy chicken dipped in nacho cheese.
Through an “extra menu” tab on the QSR’s website, customers can purchase a chip-shaped private island for a paltry $13,500,000, a golden suit of armour for $105,000 or more modest items such as personalized chipmojis for $460, among a total of twelve over-the-top items.
The online menu is intended to pique the interest of Taco Bell customers and get them to ask for the Naked Chicken Chips in store. Inspired by classic chips and dip, the crispy chicken pieces are triangle-shaped, “boldly seasoned” and paired with zesty nacho cheese sauce. The QSR worked with agency Grip on the creative concept and Edelman on PR.
“A lot of [the extra menu] items are experienced based. I would say that that has become very much the focus for our marketing, not only for this campaign, but in general as we look more to millennials and Gen Z,” says Katelyn Zborowski, associate digital and marketing manager at Taco Bell Canada. “That’s really where they’re placing value and what they’re looking for, not only from QSRs, but brands in general.”
On the product side, the idea for Naked Chicken Chips came after the company’s first venture with its Naked Chicken Chalupa in the summer of 2017. That product sold out faster than anticipated, according to Zborowski, leading the company to believe people craved more of its crispy chicken.
“Our goal of the campaign was to get people talking about the new product, to drive awareness and hopefully drive trial,” says Zborowski. Seeing as the company has a smaller share of voice in the chicken category, “we had to come at it in a [way that was] different, truly Taco Bell, funny–and frankly a little bit weird.”
To show customers that it’s serious about its strange experience-based offerings, the company recently ran a stunt at one of its restaurants in Hamilton, Ont. It featured an actor posing as a cashier and asking unintelligible questions to customers and Toronto’s 416 Beats drumline arriving out of nowhere to perform a song. A video of the stunt will be released in the near future.
