Who: Taco Bell & Octagon activate a Speakeasy. 

Location: New York City, NY

Designed Experience: Taco Bell's new Naked Chicken Chalupa, a fried chicken taco shell, is about to be launched. To generate buzz and earned media, we create a temporary, pop-up speakeasy. Visitors are provided cryptic instructions on social media, and similar to a traditional speakeasy, reservations are not easy to get. Visitors rush to secure a spot that's only possible by dialing a phone number. After calling, they are given a time to show up at a particular location with instructions to "find the door."

Guests are initially greeted with a fake office for The Council for Eating Fried Chicken the Same Way You Always Have. The environment is decorated and transformed into a 50's inspired office full of props, propaganda posters, and pamphlets. Actors, who stay in complete character, interact with guests in their mission to inform everyone about the dangers to traditional values from this new, irresistible, and delicious way of eating fried chicken.

Those who follow bread-crumbed hints eventually find a refrigerator door that leads into another entirely transformed space revealing a hidden, secret speakeasy that becomes the hottest, underground scene in the city. Guests enjoy a taste of this new product, drink a signature cocktail, and enjoy music in an environment that inspires authentic user generated content throughout the night knowing everyone else on social media is clamoring to find a way in as well.

Results: 10 calls per minute for reservations, 1000 lucky guests served, sold-out experience at door-opening, 90 broadcast clips and articles, and 286 million impressions. Positive word of mouth from the most loyal fans created one of Taco Bell’s most successful product launches ever and a solid up-lift in sales at store locations.