• by Steve Ellwanger , February 28, 2022

Heard the word “inflation” lately?

While it’s a bane to many consumers, rising prices have been a boon to generating awareness for Del Taco’s 20 under $2 value menu.

Late last year, the nation’s second-largest Mexican chain by units saw inflation and competitors’ responses as a potential differentiator, and is now doubling down on  ridiculing the cost of everything imaginable.

In early January, this spot from the California agency Skiver presented diners with the prospect of a dozen “sale-priced” eggs costing $1 BAJILLION, regular gasoline for $5,333 a gallon, and the sticker price for a car jumping from $64,999 to $964,999.

It’s a way to highlight the availability of 20 Del Taco beverages and food items priced less than $2 each, at a time when inflation shows no sign of ebbing.

“In the fourth quarter of last year, we noticed what was happening in the marketplace with our competition,” Del Taco CMO Tim Hackbardt tells Marketing Daily. “There was a very rapid rise in restaurant prices. At the same time, we started to see any brand that had a value menu was pretty much abandoning it—or the prices were really not a value anymore. We saw a potential opportunity for us to own that space.”

This month, the craziness continues, with a rental home for $1 BAJILLION monthly, a gallon of milk for $50.99, and canvas “value shoes” priced at $2,022 each.

According to Hackbardt, the campaign’s continuation is based in part on viewer completion rates of the January ads on such digital platforms as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. “It’s a campaign that people really identify with.”

The campaign also is running on local broadcast and cable television, along with targeted buys on connected-TV.

As a “big user” of radio, Del Taco is running audio iterations of the campaign in 20 markets and on Spotify and Pandora.

As for the duration of "20 under $2," Hackbardt adds, “We don’t expect it to go away anytime soon. It’s not a limited-time offer. We expect it to be here for the entire year.”

Del Taco seems to have tapped three of the top elements of QSR advertising that people find “most appealing,” according to Engine Insights.

When Engine surveyed 4,028 U.S. adults this month, food was the top-liked ad element (59% of respondents) followed by promotions/deals (51%) and humor/wit (31%).

Among the least-appealing elements were a celebrity endorsement (8%) and evoking emotion/empathy (8%).