• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 4, 2021

To celebrate National Taco Day, Publicis Media's Spark Foundry unit created a campaign for Taco Bell in the U.K. enabling WhatsApp users to turn their "taco emojis" into tacos they can actually eat.

To claim a free Taco Bell crunchy taco, users simply WhatsApp the emoji from their phone to Taco Bell's account, enabling each texter to head to one of 71 of the restaurants locations nationwide to exchange the emoji for a real-life taco.

Spark Foundry handled media planning and buying for the promotion, including out-of-home and social media aimed at 16- to 34-year-olds.

Taco Bell first introduced the taco emoji to the masses in 2015 through a petition that received more than 33,000 signatures urging the Unicode Consortium to include the emoji on smartphones.

And for the first 100 fans patronizing Taco Bell's Baker Street location in London, they will be served by YouTube star Chunkz.

“Our strategy for this campaign was to integrate innovation, stand out from our competitors and elevate the brand," notes Spark Foundry Managing Partner Liz Ragoo, adding, "Our media plan taps into channels that will make young people around the UK see tacos everywhere on National Taco Day."