Taco Bell and SXSW

South By Southwest is one of the largest music, entertainment and media festivals in the country. For 10 days in Austin, Texas, bands and artists perform, celebrities make appearances and do interviews, speakers reveal new information, and there are smiles all around. 

South By Southwest is also the perfect venue for brands and companies to show off and prove their true colors. Taco Bell is spoken about often in the public relations and marketing world because of its strong social media presence and miraculous revamp of its entire brand. But it can not be spoken about enough, because Taco Bell once again showed up with full force during SXSW. 

Taco Bell channeled its inner hipster rock star during SXSW this year. Representatives from the company attended various events throughout the festival and Tweeted about the goings on to make its presence known. One of the best marketing moves Taco Bell made was to set up a make shift taxi service for bands. Yep, that's right. Taco Bell recruited large people movers branded Taco Bell style and offered free rides to bands that needed to get around the city. 

I'm sure it cost Taco Bell a pretty penny to rent those vans and drive bands around in them all week, but the price for those vans wasn't but a chump change in the pockets of the company and provided moving advertising all week all around Austin. Bands would also Tweet from the Taco Bell van about getting a ride giving Taco Bell another opportunity for promotion to a whole new list of followers. It's virtually free advertising. 

Identifying the brand with young musicians also positioned the brand as appealing to the younger generations. The company did a fantastic job of channeling the hipster mentality that is so popular in Generation Y right now. Even during SXSW it used language on the Twitter that is common among the younger generation. 

Taco Bell even developed its own brand of fun socks characteristics to the current hipster style, and gave them away during South By Southwest. 

The younger generation is much more likely to purchase Taco Bell food and products because its cheap and ultimately not healthy. The younger generation doesn't have the kind of money older generations have saved up and hasn't hit the point in their lives where health is a huge concern. They are extremely likely to pop on over to Taco Bell for a late night after after a concert or hanging out with friends. 

So being present during a festival comprised largely of the younger generation and taking communication tactics appealing to younger generations was a great move on Taco Bell's part. 

Taco Bell continues to be a prime example of a food brand doing it right in terms of communication and marketing to its target audience! Now if only the food was good. 

Until next time, 

Nikki Darling 

(All photos via Taco Bell's Twitter)