Taco Bell MY causes a stir in the community with #MacamTacoJeNi campaign

Taco Bell has launched its #MacamTacoJeNi campaign, calling upon Malaysians to hunt for "Taco Bell's tacos" in everything, from well-known landmarks to well-loved sports to everyday objects. This came after Taco Bell's launch of the #ISEEATACO global campaign on May 2021, and was part of the brand's marketing strategy of how the #ISEEATACO is launched in different countries. In Malaysia, the campaign was localised by digital marketing agency, Lion and Lion, who also developed the local hashtag #MacamTacoJeNi to make the campaign more relevant locally.

According to Ham Maghazeh, director of social media at Lion and Lion, the approach for the #ISEEATACO campaign for each country is "on the basis of what is relevant to the market". From there, Taco Bell then used a range of platforms ranging from social media, OOH, radio to installations, partnerships and sponsorships, as well as in-store merchandising in its global outlets, said Maghazeh to A+M.  In Malaysia, Taco Bell and the agency decided to launch the campaign locally on its social media channels and leverage it during new store opening events. 

Launching a series of videos and photos of places in Malaysia where the brand has found "hidden tacos", Taco Bell invited the community to share their own taco discoveries using its IG sticker pack. "This is a campaign fuelled by the Taco Bell community to create a unique engagement opportunity with the brand," Maghazeh explained. 

According to Gitanjali Sriram, head of marketing and communications at Taco Bell Malaysia, the #MacamTacoJeNi campaign will be brought forward in 2022 with "plenty of opportunities for the fans to engage, both online and in-store". While Taco Bell declined to comment on the monetary value of the campaign, Sriram said that the company hoped to "make the Taco Bell taco famous world over, and to get the world to crave a Taco Bell taco anytime, anywhere". 

"It was nearly 60 years ago that pioneering founder Glen Bell introduced an unfamiliar food – the taco - into a burger-crazed culture. Now it is time to take that rebellious move to the next level by popularising the Taco Bell taco across the globe. To democratise the taco, we worked to snag the biggest billboard in the world, the Moon, to launch the #ISEEATACO campaign with a simple and memorable visual of what we call, The Taco Moon," said Hans Lee creative director at Lion and Lion. 

Meanwhile, Sriram was appointed as Taco Bell Malaysia's head of marketing and communications in April this year. In her role, Sriram oversees all advertising and communications with the collaboration of the Taco Bell International APAC marketing team. Sriram was previously with Publicis Groupe, last working as chief operating officer for Malaysia in 2020. She also worked at the Groupe's Manila and Dubai offices. 

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