From recipe ideation to product testing to finally making it on the menu, Shredded Beef Birria was a years long passion project for the entire culinary team at El Pollo Loco. So, in March 2022 when El Pollo Loco became the first quick service restaurant to add birria to its menu for a limited time, it was a collaborative effort across the company to make it a smashing success.
El Pollo Loco’s Shredded Beef Birria was introduced in three different entrée offerings accompanied by a consommé dipping sauce: Shredded Beef Birria Stuffed Quesadilla, Shredded Beef Birria Burrito and Shredded Beef Birria Crunchy Tacos. Shredded Beef Birria was a vibrant new LTO that captured true authenticity with the high-quality ingredients prepped fresh daily that the brand is known for.
With the roll out of this monumental new menu innovation, El Pollo Loco initiated a full-funnel and highly visual marketing campaign to bring the delicious experience of birria to life and tap into the existing popularity of the dish among foodies on social media.
El Pollo Loco’s campaign goals with the digital rollout of Shredded Beef Birria were to drive sales, create demand for the limited time availability of Mexican Shredded Beef Birria on the menu and prove that consumers are craving something authentic and indulgent. Leveraging the growing popularity of the El Pollo Loco TikTok, the brand sought to achieve virality and drive strong video views as a mechanism for getting people into restaurants to order birria and interact with El Pollo Loco’s aspirational audience of young millennials and Gen Z consumers.
El Pollo Loco first launched Shredded Beef Birria in restaurants to a smaller audience of friends, family and members of its Loco Rewards™ loyalty program. The campaign supporting Shredded Beef Birria with a series of influencer partnerships on TikTok was strategically launched four days after the official soft launch of the new birria product.
For the “Dip N Drip” campaign, El Pollo Loco partnered with TikTok creators to create vibrant, culturally relevant, and enticing food content which educated viewers on what Shredded Beef Birria is and how to enjoy the new menu items for the optimal dining experience. In addition to products themselves allowing customers to indulge in an active dining experience with the handheld nature and dipping component, Shredded Beef Birria also was offered in a specially designed to go box which proved to be an additional visual component that audiences responded well to and generated additional user generated content on social media. Once the “Dip N Drip” TikTok campaign went live, sales mix jumped from 1% up to 8.5% just from TikTok and influencer marketing alone. Thus, proving that viral success can have a direct positive impact on sales.
A number of challenges were addressed and overcome in rolling out Shredded Beef Birria. El Pollo Loco sought to capture the flavor and experience of traditional birria through the cooking process and serving items with consommé for dipping. The assembly of Shredded Beef Birria needed to be hyper streamlined in El Pollo Loco restaurant kitchens to ensure a high-quality, authentic experience so it was essential to its success to introduce the ingredients, product handling, new packaging, etc. so staff understood the important role they played in getting it right. The virality achieved online needed to be matched by a standout dining experience.
Another potential challenge was the question of consumer familiarity with birria. While it is a traditional Mexican dish and there is consumer awareness of birria in markets like Los Angeles where it is already popular, birria isn’t as widely available in other markets where El Pollo Loco has a presence. It was imperative that TikTok and all social media content incorporated some level of consumer education on what It is and how to enjoy it with the essential dipping of the consommé. Influencer partners were vital in educating consumers on the right way to enjoy birria so there was no confusion once guests first opened their Shredded Beef Birria box and enjoyed their meals.
El Pollo Loco first launched Shredded Beef Birria in restaurants to a smaller audience of friends, family and members of its Loco Rewards™ loyalty program. The campaign supporting Shredded Beef Birria with a series of influencer partnerships on TikTok was strategically launched four days after the official soft launch of the new birria product.
For the “Dip N Drip” campaign, El Pollo Loco partnered with TikTok creators to create vibrant, culturally relevant, and enticing food content which educated viewers on what Shredded Beef Birria is and how to enjoy the new menu items for the optimal dining experience. In addition to products themselves allowing customers to indulge in an active dining experience with the handheld nature and dipping component, Shredded Beef Birria also was offered in a specially designed to go box which proved to be an additional visual component that audiences responded well to and generated additional user generated content on social media. Once the “Dip N Drip” TikTok campaign went live, sales mix jumped from 1% up to 8.5% just from TikTok and influencer marketing alone. Thus, proving that viral success can have a direct positive impact on sales.
A number of challenges were addressed and overcome in rolling out Shredded Beef Birria. El Pollo Loco sought to capture the flavor and experience of traditional birria through the cooking process and serving items with consommé for dipping. The assembly of Shredded Beef Birria needed to be hyper streamlined in El Pollo Loco restaurant kitchens to ensure a high-quality, authentic experience so it was essential to its success to introduce the ingredients, product handling, new packaging, etc. so staff understood the important role they played in getting it right. The virality achieved online needed to be matched by a standout dining experience.
Another potential challenge was the question of consumer familiarity with birria. While it is a traditional Mexican dish and there is consumer awareness of birria in markets like Los Angeles where it is already popular, birria isn’t as widely available in other markets where El Pollo Loco has a presence. It was imperative that TikTok and all social media content incorporated some level of consumer education on what It is and how to enjoy it with the essential dipping of the consommé. Influencer partners were vital in educating consumers on the right way to enjoy birria so there was no confusion once guests first opened their Shredded Beef Birria box and enjoyed their meals.
