3. Research
• Worked with Burson-Marsteller Communications
• Secondary:
– 3/10 students in U.S. public schools still fail to finish high
school with a diploma
• Primary:
– only 4% of customers were aware of the TBFT, but 49
percent of consumers wanted to see TBFT support
community organizations
– Internal:
• nearly half of franchisees were not actively supporting the
Foundation
• brand positioning research told us that a unified message across
all channels was critical
• those surveyed wanted to see more visibility of the cause on the
local level
4. Research
Strengths Weaknesses
•large, well-known franchise
•access to partnerships with
organizations
•rumored to be poor quality
food and service
•low level of employee
awareness and involvement in
Taco Bell programs
Opportunities Threats
•large communities in need of
Taco Bell’s programs
•no real threats, this is a
philanthropic campaign
6. Planning
• “overall strategies”:
• create a “big tent” employee
engagement brand platform and
campaign that could house all
current and future programs and
partnerships
• engaging broader support from the
restaurants
7. “Taco Bell believes in teens. Each day, we serve
and interact with millions of teens. They are our
customers, our employees, our friends and
families. They are also our future – future
leaders, franchisees, suppliers and partners.
That’s why we’re committed to setting them up
for success in the real world. This means
addressing critical factors to their future success,
including graduating from high school; preparing
for college; training for jobs; staying active and
healthy; and serving in their communities.”
goal
9. • Drive Public Awareness of the Graduate to Go
Initiative and raise the stature and visibility of
the TBFT as a key player in the high school
drop out crisis
• Engage Franchise support through local grants
program providing real-world experiences for
teens
• Grow the TBFT to a $7M organization through
franchise and restaurant fundraising efforts
objectives
10. • Fundraising Plan and Creative
Development of Graduate To Go
Campaign
• Initiate Board and Franchisee Sell In
• Create Franchise-based Fundraising
Committee
strategies
12. • “Wahlberg Challenge”
• Graduate to Go Local Grants
• Restaurant Ambassador Program
• Partner Engagement
• Teen Profile Development
• Media Desk Side Meetings
• Los Angeles Studio Opening
• Ongoing media campaign
tactics
13. –Graduate for Más
• Partnership with “Get Schooled”
• Pledge to finish high school
• Win prizes
–Camp Taco Bell Experience
• Business leadership program
• Earn grants for school
–Taco Bell Foundation for Teens
(Studio)
• Partnership with B&Gs Club
other programs part of TBFT
16. Evaluation
• Awareness:
– approximately 280 million earned media impressions and
40 million people exposed to the PSA (over two year span)
– Taco Bell sports marketing integration and media buy
furthered the reach for Graduate to Go
– Exposure through Facebook helped reach new audiences:
• Boys & Girls Club of America (31,694), Anderson Cooper
(60,232), Mark Wahlberg (336,727), Taco Bell
(7,639,698), and Graduate to Go (1,238)
– QSR Magazine’s “100 Biggest Stories of 2011”:
• “Quick-Service Restaurant”
• Ranked Taco Bell Graduate to Go Studio and Mark
Wahlberg as number 42
17. Evaluation
• Awareness:
– Conversation related to TBFT and/or Graduate to Go
appeared in more than 11,200 posts online Jan. 1 – Nov.
2012
– Over 90% of discussion surfaced on Twitter
• In early June, approximately 9,000 tweets cited the hashtag
“#GraduateToGo” in support of a Twitter party with Mark
Wahlberg
– More than 60% of online news coverage was the result of
TBFT press releases and announcements
– Primary topics of discussion related to:
• TBFT’s online campaign asking users to “like, share or tweet”
Graduate to Go content on social media to “help teens graduate”
18. Evaluation
• Support:
– Increased Taco Bell restaurant participation in
national fundraising from 60 to 80 percent from 2010-
2011
• Restaurants gave $250 each and engaged stores to
ask customers to donate $1
– Engaged 5,000 restaurant ambassadors to support
the fundraiser, versus 500 in 2010
– Mark Wahlberg attended the annual Franchise
Convention in 2010 and 2011 and raised nearly $1
million over two years in franchise donations from live
auction packages and scholarships
19. Evaluation
• Growth:
– The positive results of the campaign allowed TBFT to:
• Grant more than $5 million to teen programs that
year
• Reach more than 100,000 teens annually through
real-world experiences
• Elevate its work through deeper integration with
the Taco Bell brand and culture
• Be a $7 million organization and growing
21. • Why is this campaign significant?
– Demonstrates the importance of engagement
with your internal publics
• What made it successful?
– Planning thorough
– Strategies simple, cohesive, organized
– Tactics multitude of events, as well as big-name
partnerships: Boys & Girls Club, Mark Wahlberg
Youth Foundation
My Perspective
22. • Change in perspective:
– Realize the importance of internal public
(employees) for a successful campaign
• Often only focusing on the external public and how to
engage them
My Perspective
