In 2014 Taco Bell was ready to launch their new breakfast menu. The challenge was to solidify Taco Bell — who had traditionally been a brand known for late night — as a major breakfast player in an extremely crowded and competitive category. The strategy was to catapult us into the category by making breakfast a two horse race with leader McDonalds. By starting a war. We needed the attention of consumers already eating breakfast as QSR so they would re-consider their decision and try Taco Bell.

The solution was to use McDonald's own mascot against them. So we gathered 23 real people named Ronald McDonald and had them try Taco Bell's new breakfast. And guess what? They loved it.

Within hours of launch it was the top trending topic on twitter, Facebook and Google+. Over two million views of the launch spot alone on YouTube. And over three BILLION media impressions in the first 48 hours. Taco Bell had an all-time sales week record for franchisees.

Launch Taco Bell breakfast and make a brand known for late-night become a part of people’s morning routine. Get consumers talking about Taco Bell breakfast so that it's top of mind as they consider their breakfast destination.

The launch was picked up by over 2,000 different news outlets (most of them dubbing it "the breakfast wars”). Within hours it was the top trending topic on twitter, Facebook and Google+. Over two million views of the launch spot alone on YouTube.

And over three BILLION media impressions in the first 48 hours. Taco Bell had an all-time sales week record for franchisees. And most importantly breakfast is now a two-horse race in the mind of consumers. The breakfast wars have begun.

The Ronald McDonald spots were the culmination of a larger Taco Bell PR "rolling thunder" strategy to steadily build buzz for Taco Bell breakfast.

We teased about 30 key outlets, including USA Today and Associated Press, that we would be making big breakfast news—but we closely guarded the details so McDonald's wouldn't catch wind.

This built anticipation and helped ensure coverage by not only those outlets, but hundreds more.

The opportunity for PR presented itself from the outset of the idea. Utilizing real people whose name had become synonymous with the breakfast QSR leader, and getting them to support the launch of Taco Bell breakfast.

Ronald McDonald is an instantly recognizable name for people young and old, and it was exactly the execution that would directly insert us into conversation and consideration around breakfast.

We needed something audacious to pull conversation away from McDonald's and generate free publicity for breakfast, and the Ronald spots did just that.

We wanted to position Taco Bell to be in a "two-horse race" with McDonald's in the QSR breakfast category by inserting Taco Bell into the breakfast conversation directly with the leader McDonald's at launch.

This would quickly supplant Taco Bell ahead of Burger King, Wendy's and others in the minds of consumers. We didn't actually use the phrase, but we gave journalists the details they needed so that they wrote that story for us.