2016_TacoBellLogo_Stacked_Clr
Industry Restaurants
Location Irvine, CA
Employees 26,055
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Learn how the Taco Bell uses Muck Rack to:

  • Curate topic-specific media lists with Muck Rack’s journalist search engine
  • Monitor top tier journalists covering the Taco Bell brand through Muck Rack Alerts

Table of Contents

    About Taco Bell

    Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is the world's leading Mexican-inspired quick service restaurant (QSR) brand. Taco Bell serves made-to-order and customizable tacos and burritos and other specialties with bold flavours, quality ingredients, breakthrough value, and best-in-class customer service to over 40 million customers weekly across the globe. There are currently more than 400 Taco Bell restaurants across 27 countries outside of the United States, with the goal of expanding the brand's international presence to 1,000 restaurants by 2022. The Company and its franchisees operate more than 7,000 restaurants, generating more than $9Bin sales. By 2022, the brand plans to become a $15B company in global system sales with 9,000 restaurants globally.

    In Their Own Words: Taco Bell's Favorite Muck Rack Features

    Matt_Prince
    Matt Prince
    Senior Manager of PR and Brand Experience
    Taco Bell

    Search

    Before we started using Muck Rack, the Taco Bell team was looking for a tool to leverage at the drop of a dime. We wanted to be able to better understand our audience from a journalist standpoint, including what is being shared, but also how and where it is being shared. This allows us to see how we can continue to grow journalist relationships and better execute some of our pitching and outreach to media.

    We’re always launching different campaigns unique to our brand or the industry, so we’re constantly using Muck Rack’s Search tool to find journalists who have covered specific topics. For example, we recently did an activation at Comic-Con around the 25th anniversary of the movie Demolition Man. For those unfamiliar, the movie projected a future world where only Taco Bell’s exist, so we recreated the Taco Bell from the movie for an experiential pop-up. Before launching the campaign, we searched Muck Rack to find any journalist that has mentioned Taco Bell and Demolition Man. We were able to put together an amazing list of journalists who otherwise wouldn’t have been part of our media list.

    Muck Rack helps us think outside the traditional way we’re approaching reporters to find those needles in the haystack. Our Comic-Con activation coverage was amplified because of it, especially with those outlets that don’t typically cover Taco Bell or the food industry, including outlets local to San Diego all the way up to national blogs tied to comics and science fiction. Gizmodo and CNET also covered the activation, which was a huge win for Taco Bell.

    “Muck Rack is the map, compass and GPS for navigating the ever evolving media and journalist landscape. Truly without them, as a PR practitioner, I would be lost.”

    — Matt Prince, Senior Manager of PR and Brand Experience

    Alerts

    I start my day by reviewing my Muck Rack Alerts -- I walk into the office having a really great understanding of the news coverage from the past 24 hours about the brand.

    In particular, I’ve got Alerts set up for specific topics and brand coverage, but also for a list of 12 core journalists from top tier media outlets who we have strong relationships with and that cover the brand regularly. As a brand with a broad footprint, we could have hundreds of posts or conversations a day within the media landscape, so these Alerts help to give us a leg up and take advantage of some of the conversations from top reporters while they’re still hot. By monitoring their coverage and tweets via Alerts, we separate them from the rest of the pack, which allows us to be more thoughtful with those we engage with on a more frequent basis. Alerts help us gain awareness from a brand standpoint that enables us to move quickly and amplify a great conversation.

    Five Fast Questions

    1. How has PR changed in the past several years? How has Muck Rack helped you keep up?

    The way journalists are covering news is changing dramatically. Newsrooms are getting smaller and beats are getting larger. Over the past several years we’re seeing the number of journalists using social media increase greatly. Just like the way that brands are using social is dramatically changing, the same can be said of journalists. Muck Rack allows us to adapt to these changes and be flexible which is the name of the game right now in PR and marketing.

    2. What has your experience been like working with Muck Rack's customer success team?

    It has been great! Every time I’ve chatted with the customer success team on the phone, they’ve been amazingly responsive and the support has been fantastic.

    3. In addition to results, what other benefits have you experienced from Muck Rack? 

    The ability to show results for specific campaigns and not only who is talking about the brand, but who is sharing pieces of the brand is really great. At Taco Bell, we’re dependent on our results and sharing those internally with our stakeholders. The ability to have a platform like Muck Rack to showcase those great results is another way for us to better make a case for the things we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

    4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words? 

    Insightful, beneficial and convenient

    5. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack? 

    I’d tell other companies considering Muck Rack that it’s a tool that will help you and your team to gain clarity around your media efforts. With great knowledge comes great power, and to have a tool like Muck Rack, you're able to really leverage that information to do some amazing things with the brand and with those relationships you wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to do.