Tanner SmithCEO Syndicate Marketing | Scaling 7, 8, & 9 figure businesses | Performance marketing for ecom, local, and info businesses

Steal This Crazy Lesson From Taco Bell To Grow Your Business

29 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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0:44

In this short monologue, the speaker recounts how Taco Bell, facing declining sales and a stale menu, revived its brand by launching a bold, fully‑committed collaboration with Doritos to create a Doritos‑branded taco. The initiative involved re‑engineering the taco’s shell texture, launching a high‑visibility marketing blitz, and leveraging the spectacle of a neon‑orange product to generate massive social media buzz and line‑ups. The speaker frames this as a universal business lesson: when a brand is struggling, an audacious, all‑in partnership that creates a visual and experiential spectacle can catapult the brand back into the spotlight.

Chapters

Taco Bell was circling the drain. They had slumping sales, tired menus, and ultimately everybody forgot that they even existed. Then came a bold question. What if we fused our tacos with America's favorite snack? That mashup took on a life of its own. Photos of neon orange shells flooded social media. News outlets raved and customers formed lines just for a bite. So what made it work? Taco Bell didn't tinker around the edges. They went all in, re-engineering everything from the shell's texture to the marketing blitz. More importantly, they recognized that customers love a spectacle and a Doritos branded taco was guaranteed guaranteed to spark curiosity. If your brand is on the ropes, a daring, fully committed collaboration can catapult you back into the spotlight. All it takes is one audacious idea and then the balls to see it through.