Since 2006, Taco Bell’s Feed the Beat program has supported more than 600 rising music acts with $500 in gift certificates to help keep them fed on the road. And in more recent years, the company has extended its outreach to the music industry by including Feed the Beat bands and their music in its national TV advertising — most notably with Passion Pit, whose single “Take a Walk” began its long stint on the Billboard Hot 100 last September as a direct result of its use in a Taco Bell commercial that aired during last year’s MTV Video Music Awards.
As a sequel of sorts to that breakout moment, Taco Bell used the date of this year’s VMAs to premiere “Hello Everywhere,” a feature-length “rockumentary” film directed by Sam Jones (“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco”) chronicling the journey to South by Southwest 2013 for two Feed the Beat bands, Passion Pit and Wildcat! Wildcat! Vevo hosted the film’s premiere, which racked up more than 300,000 views in its four days of release.
The film was shot on location in Austin, with additional concert footage filmed with the help of bloggers and influencers like YouTube personality Tyler Oakley and Warner Bros. band Blondfire. (Full disclosure: This reporter was one of them.) The idea was to celebrate the success of a Feed the Beat veteran like Passion Pit, who recently sold out New York’s Madison Square Garden, while alternately celebrating the rise of a band at the moment it was about to break. Wildcat! Wildcat! was finalizing a label deal at the time of “Hello Everywhere,” and on Sept. 10 will release its debut EP on Downtown Records.
By partnering with music agency the Syndicate, Feed the Beat has helped play an early role in the careers of hundreds of bands across indie, alternative rock, EDM, folk and pop, with the Lumineers, Best Coast, 3OH!3, Imagine Dragons, Gym Class Heroes, fun. and the Gaslight Anthem among its best-known alumni. But unlike similar music-friendly brands like Mountain Dew, Red Bull and most recently Samsung, which have taken on label-like functions with artists, Taco Bell’s goal is to be an “amplifier,” according to Will Bortz, the chain’s senior manager of brand partnerships and a key architect in the Feed the Beat program.
“We want to have bands plug into us and have a whole bunch of people be able to hear their music,” Bortz says. “We can reach half of America every week with our TV advertising, so if we can build the music in as a character in the spot, we can give our bands the ability to amplify what they’re already doing.”
Those efforts can work quickly. Brian Nolan, senior director at Columbia Records’ in-house agency, says the label had a 334% spike in sales for rising act St. Lucia in April when the band’s “All Eyes on You” was featured in a Taco Bell spot. Copies sold of the digital single rose from 286 to 825 the week of April 28, and helped drum up internal excitement around the band’s debut, “When the Night,” due Oct. 8. The label is hoping for similar results from a new regional spot featuring Walk Off the Earth.
Chris Brandt, Taco Bell’s new chief marketing officer, says music-related efforts have helped the fast-feeder maintain an “emotional connection” with its target consumer, in ways that standalone 30-second TV spots can’t always do. “One of the things Taco Bell has tried to do in order to be more relevant with our fans is really nurture their creative spirit,” he says.