Cannes Lions

Belluminati

DEUTSCH LA, Los Angeles / TACO BELL / 2018

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Overview

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Credits

Overview

Description

When food this decadent only costs $1, something doesn’t add up. All the signs pointed to something big: the Belluminati, a secret society of decadence reserved for those in the know—or those with $1. Borrowing from the best conspiracy theories, Taco Bell fueled the rumors of the Belluminati by dropping a collection of seemingly unsubstantiated clues and evidence and recruited people to join the Belluminati for the price of $1. We even invited superfans to unlock access to an exclusive Belluminati $1 store.

Execution

Before the Belluminati even made itself known to the world across social/digital and broadcast, we turned existing value loyalists into Belluminati ambassadors by providing them with exclusive kits of share-worthy Belluminati swag. We then invited everyone to become members of the Belluminati. Their ticket in? Trial of $1 value menu item. We also created a secret Belluminati store for fans and superfans to unlock access to - three separate times over the course of the campaign. Each time, we released a challenge harder than the one before, which when solved, unlocked higher value swag, always available for $1. Last but not least, we fueled rumors around the Belluminati on Imgur by calling out hidden symbolism within the dollar bill, and by also stringing together series of random observations presented as sound logical connections… just like a real conspiracy theory.

Outcome

*Taco Bell earned over 838M PR impressions over the course of the campaign.

*Imgur Belluminati content had two times higher engagement rates than Imgur’s benchmark. Comments included the likes of: “Read through this entire post before realizing it was an ad.”

*The Taco Bell Reddit page received over fifteen times as many page views on the last day of the Belluminati store unlocks*.

*Taco Bell fans independently created a black market of Belluminati swag on EBay.

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