Campaign Reviews

#MakePotatoGreat: Tanmay Bhat, the poster boy of influencer marketing...

author-image
Sneha Yadav
Updated On
New Update
Make Potato Great campaign

Taco Bell's Make Potato Great campaign is based on rich content created by a dense network of A lister influencers. Social Samosa gets in conversation with Taco Bell and Ogilvy to take a look at the campaign journey.

Taco Bell from Yum! Brands is attempting to revolutionize your world with the Crispy Potaco – a combination of Potato and Taco.

The brand has launched a  potato centric take on the traditional taco.  The new Crispy Potaco will give this much-loved vegetable a new identity…it will no longer play the sidekick in most meals says the brand in their communication.

In the digital-only campaign conceptualised by Ogilvy we can see Tanmay Bhat pitching the product which has the potential to make potato great, to investors, who are floored by the novelty Potaco.

Campaign Insight

The campaign is based on the insight of how potato has always been a consistent part of eating choices, but not been given its complete due. The mighty spud suffers silently as it is crushed between burger buns, forced into a samosa, drowned in ketchup. It’s time someone gave the potato it’s chance to shine.

Also Read: It is very easy to get lost in this game – Tanmay Bhat

Campaign Brief

Launch the new potato taco product through digital touchpoints keeping the product insight ‘Reinvention in the new innovation’ intact, as well as projecting the product as the ‘New Avatar of Potato’.

SAMBIT DASHWhen asked why only the digital route to promote the idea, Sambit Dash, Head of Marketing for Taco Bell, Yum! Brands said, “With only 17 stores in urban areas, the audience for Taco Bell has been defined as the ‘Millennials’… For whom the only relevant medium to catch their attention is digital, combined with the influencer (Tanmay Bhat) being a well-known & active social media influencer, the choice to be Digital first was logical.”

Why Tanmay?

The Crispy Potaco from Taco Bell is a product so revolutionary, it could only be introduced by a mad, potato-loving genius. Enter Tanmay Bhat.  The digital film starring Tanmay, India’s very popular comedian, connects with Taco Bell’s mission of making potato great.

"The brand’s first choice for this campaign was Tanmay, because of his ability to capture audiences through his humorous and entertaining content,"Dash added. "Food and Beverage content has been a key association with Tanmay."

“We were still finalizing the product name and exploring options for collaboration. Over the course of the following weeks, a script emerged plus Tanmay was our first choice. Tanmay was a total sport and contributed his original content to the material. It was a wonderful collaboration," shared Sidharth Shukla, Vice President and Head of Digital, Ogilvy Delhi.

On Twitter, it all started when on June 12 when star comedian Tanmay Bhat tweeted a 11 second video captioning, ‘It’s time to make #MakePotatoGreat. While the twitterati wondered what the comedian was up to, Taco Bell India retweeted and the purpose was put forth.

The Influencer angle 

Bhat went on and posted more short clips adding his touch of humour to them. The hashtag caught attention of many and thereby began the buzz around potato, attracting many influencers such as Karan Tacker and Lady Gabbar. #MakePotatoGreat received 24,522,245 impressions, according to Tweetbinder.

Further, the brand created yet another video featuring Tanmay Bhat, taking a subtle dig at McDonald's McAloo Tikki. The video was further shared by prominent food blogger, D for Delhi.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj9uMO4lzvj/?tagged=makepotatogreat

Other food bloggers such as Mister Tikku, Food Talk India, dfim, and Munching Murmurs too were a part of the campaign on Instagram.

Simultaneously video posts and creatives were shared on Facebook for the targeted millenials to get them engaged and create buzz. The brand also lowered the prices of Crispy Potaco from Rs.129 to Rs.99! Also a Wednesday-only offer was introduced to wherein people can Pay using Paytm.

taco 1

taqco 2

The digital film on Facebook has 215k views with 1k reactions and hundreds of people commenting on it.

Sidharth ShuklaShukla said, "Both the teams along with Tanmay knew we had a solid, fertile brief to play with and that's exactly what we did...played and had fun! With the result of some great creative work to show for it.  We have fantastic chemistry between the Taco Bell & Ogilvy teams and I am confident when I say that look forward to more such work coming out in the future!"

Conceptualisation to Execution

Oglivy Delhi’s planning team analysed the consumer segment carefully and identified a few key insights. The most fertile brief came from the insight that the potato has been oppressed/sidelined in so many dishes, and hasn’t really got its glory. During the first round of creative conceptualization itself, the idea to “Make Potato Great” was loved by everyone at Taco Bell and Ogilvy.

Shukla added here, "We started engaging on the films with QED Films with Director Nikhil Chalam and Producer Harshvardhan, both with incredible credentials and vision for this project. The rest just happened through crazy timelines, WhatsApp groups, endless conference calls. It was absolute fun!"

Also Read: 6 palatable marketing takeaways from Burger King’s social media strategy

Further highlighting the significance of social media altering various norms, he noted that Food topics are a key social interest – and social media is also potent platform where exciting ideas about food spread. "We’ve only just seen the discovery of great food surface on social media, via curated communities and Instagram posts. But since the love of food is deep, we definitely expect a lot content and an evolution of social interactions taking place on social. What will it look like? We’ll be chewing on that."

Meanwhile for Taco Bell the journey has only just begun. The brand has been using social campaigns to create a business impact, and there’s a lot more in store with a new strategy being rolled out.

digital marketing campaigns digital marketing campaigns 2018 digital marketing campaigns 2018 india ]taco bell crispy potatco #makepotatogreat crispy potaco Make Potato Great campaign Make Potato Great campaign taco bell makepotatogreat tanmay bhat social media marketing camapigns social media marketing camapigns india social media marketing camapigns india 2018 social meida campiagns taco bell #makepotatogreat taco bell campaign taco bell campaign review taco bell campaigns taco bell digital campign taco bell facebook taco bell marketing taco bell tanmay bhat taco bell twitter tanmay bhat #makepotatogreat