George Lopez Tacos
Brand launch event
George Lopez Tacos is a virtual kitchen brand owned and licensed by Nextbite. As their flagship celebrity-backed virtual kitchen brand, making sure that GLT launched to great success would set a standard for how the company handled celebrity brands in the future, and to the rest of the blossoming virtual kitchen industry. To do this, internal creative, brand and marketing teams at Nextbite worked in tandem to create a brand activation that set this gold standard internally, and cement George Lopez Tacos as a craveable future delivery option for the consumer.
For the brand’s launch, we decided to activate it in a way that was inherent to the brand’s roots; inspired by the authentic street tacos that George himself loves. A taco truck was a natural vehicle to drive trial of this digital-first brand to the physical masses. Having that taco truck follow George while on his tour guaranteed a captive audience when it rolled up. Offering the tacos for free made them irresistible to comedy-show attendees in line and anyone in the vicinity of the show’s venue. Paired with on-premise marketing materials and trained brand ambassadors working the event, it was safe to call the launch a great success.
Taco truck design
George Lopez Tacos already had an established visual identity system. My role was to expand on this identity and figure out how it lived in physical space. For the taco truck, I wanted the brand to be recognizable from each side, and when we had the real estate, showcase the crave-worthy product and of course, George. Since GLT is a digital-only brand, it was important to point to the brand’s home on the web for potential customers to seek more information. At the order window (or stuck behind the truck in traffic), potential customers have a little more time to read, and typically phone in-hand, so social channels were included here.
brand support + on-premise marketing materials
Of course, there was more to the activation than just the truck. The entire user journey, from brand unaware to taco-in-mouth, was considered and planned for. The truck, while a giant billboard on wheels, wasn’t the only form of enticement for a potential customer.
Branded fliers were handed out to passersby and folks waiting to get into George’s comedy show. The flier not only advertised the truck and the promise of free tacos, but also the chance to win $500. Anyone simply walking by but not handed a flier would also be informed of the free taco and giveaway by a bright A-frame sign advertisement.
People would then find the truck, and get in line. Once in line, ambassadors wearing branded t-shirts would tell them about George Lopez Tacos, and about the food they were about to sample. A strategically placed menu A-frame helped guests figure out which taco they wanted to try while they waited. Once guests arrived at the window and got the free taco of their choosing, the taco boat was designed with more information on how they could order those damn delicious tacos again, and an additional insert in the boat included a special UberEats offer.
A few lucky guests would receive a mysterious blue box with their tacos, containing a $500 Visa gift card, presumably to spend on more tacos.
content capture
Below you’ll find an assortment of photos from the event, and videos capturing the experiences of our guests. These assets were later used to make an assortment of branded assets; organic social media posts, YouTube videos, Tiktok clips and much more.
