As it looks to build its Snapchat presence, Taco Bell has created a VJ search for millennials.
Last month, the quick-serve restaurant put out a call for entries for its search to find a host for its Snapchat account. The winner, which Taco Bell will announce shortly, will work with the brand and its agency, Grip, to create weekly Snapchat stories featuring the restaurant’s products.
The contest was inspired by a meet-up Taco Bell hosts every quarter with a group of young, loyal customers it calls “Mas Nation” (a play on Taco Bell’s “Live Mas” tagline). Jacquie Kostuk, social content strategist at Grip, said at one of the meet-ups about nine months ago, the conversation turned to Snapchat and how the group uses it.
What the customers told Taco Bell, Kostuk said, is they’re heavy users of Snapchat and like the platform because it shows a casual side of their favourite celebrities, like Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. The takeaway for Taco Bell: connecting a real person to the account could help humanize its Snapchat marketing. By hiring a host, Kostuk said, the Snapchat stories the brand sends out would start to feel more like the ones created by the app’s users.
More than 50 consumers entered the contest and participated in Taco Bell’s first host challenge – a creative use of the taco emoji in a Snapchat video story. Ten semi-finalists were then tasked with creating a five-part story featuring Taco Bell’s Cheetos Crunchwrap Slider. Three finalists were given the keys to Taco Bell’s snapchat for a test drive and challenged to create a 10-part story to send out to the brand’s followers.
The winner will be chosen based on their creative use of the platform and the number of views they were able to drive on their stories for Taco Bell’s account.
The contest was promoted via paid media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and organic posts across all of Taco Bell’s social accounts including Snapchat itself.
The hosting gig is a paid position with a three-month term and the contest winner will be paid per Snapchat story they create on behalf of the brand. While Taco Bell’s brand team and Grip will collaborate with the winner, Taco Bell Canada associate digital and marketing manager Katelyn Zborowski said most of the content would be driven by the host.
“We want to look to them to guide us on the content and where to take it,” she said. “We want their authentic natural spin, their unique take. We’re looking to them to lead a lot, but we’re there to support.”
Zborowski said one of Taco Bell’s goals for 2015 is to increase its presence on Snapchat, which it sees as a key platform for its young demographic. The brand has been using the platform in Canada since 2013 to tease product launches and offer behind-the-scene peeks at its ad campaigns. Grip’s Kostuk said said the company’s Snapchat audience was currently “in the thousands.”
With the host, Zborowski said Taco Bell was looking to increase the frequency of its Snapchat posts – it currently sends out Snapchat stories on a weekly to bi-weekly basis – and grow its following.
In the U.S., Taco Bell has invested heavily in Snapchat. The company even hired a two-person team to work exclusively on its Snapchat account in addition to having a Snapchat host in that market.
