Venmo and Taco Bell were coming together to give America a free taco, just by paying with Venmo in Taco Bell's app. But as exciting as a free taco promotion can be, we needed to really capture the attention of our Gen Z audience. And with them being constantly bombarded with discounts and digital perks everywhere they look, we needed to grab their attention in a really unexpected, fun and... kinda dumb way.
Because the truth is, that's what creates buzz these days. Random, shareable content. Stuff that people want to bring up to their friends. The opportunity was clear: turn a delicious digital incentive into something more. Something ridiculous, unforgettable and freaking beautiful. Instead of the free taco getting people excited, it was the possibility of wearing it that made the internet freak out.
A free taco is great. Everyone loves a free taco. But you know what people don't love? Not having a place to hold your free taco when your hand are full. So that's when it hit us: let's design the most unnecessary taco accessory the world has ever seen. And that's when the Venmo Taco Bellt was born.
We were serious about getting a free taco in people's hands, so we wanted the Venmo Taco Bellt to be as over-the-top serious and as well-crafted as possible. So we turned to Guillermo Cuevas as Dunrite Leatherworks to create a taco holster that was as high fashion as it was ridiculous. Working with him, we created 75 handmade Venmo Taco Bellts with hand stamped designs, custom airbrushed leather, and deadstock vintage gems that made our pieces totally unique and buzzworthy.
And because our Bellt was only available to 75 lucky people on Taco Bell's Tuesday Drops, we had to get people talking about it before the big reveal. So we handed our Venmo Taco Bellt over to some big time influencers to snag some eyeballs and get America drooling before the drop. Quen Blackwell did a fashion shoot wearing the Bellt. And influencer Zachariah Porter showed his off, telling everyone that it's the "hottest accessory". And yes, it was. During Taco Bell's Tuesday Drops, it was the biggest merch drop ever. So yeah. Seems like people really COULD use a place to put their free taco. And look good doing it.
The Venmo Taco Bellt was born out of the need to solve a critical fintech hurdle: the "laziness gap" in mobile payments. While Venmo is ubiquitous for splitting checks and sending money, converting that P2P loyalty into merchant-spend behavior requires a psychological bridge. Our objective was to make the act of linking a Venmo account to the Taco Bell app feel like a "golden ticket."
In an era of ephemeral digital goods, Gen Z places an outsized premium on physical artifacts that legitimize their brand affinities. We didn't just want them to link their Venmo; we wanted them to flex it. By partnering with celebrity leather artisan Guillermo Cuevas, we created the artisanal, hand-stitched flex they couldn’t stop wanting.
By placing the Venmo Taco Bellt within the Tuesday Drops program, we tapped into an existing "appointment-viewing" ecosystem where fans are already primed for scarcity, speed, and FOMO.
The Venmo Taco Bellt came to life as a collaboration with well-regarded craftsman Guillermo Cuevas of Dunrite Leatherworks, who has created one-of-a-kind pieces with celebrities like Kendrick Lamar and Shaboozey. Each of the 75 limited edition holsters were created by hand in Dunrite's Los Angeles shop, and boasted such details as vintage deadstock gems, custom hand-tooled designs, and premium leather, airbrushed to match the brands' iconic colors. Leading up to the launch, we worked with mega influencers Zachariah Porter and Quen Blackwell to show off our ridiculously chic creation, inviting people to sign up to claim their own on the Taco Bell app's Tuesday Drops. In the end, 75 lucky fans were randomly selected to win a Venmo Taco Bellt for themselves.
On social media, the Taco Bellt announcement generated positive traction and social buzz, with 105 posts, 28,400+ total engagements, and a 97% positive or neutral sentiment. Notable Instagram posts were shared by Food Beast (23k+ engagements) and Tastebud.
The highly sought after accessory received 34,890 total entries received within an hour, higher than any other sweeps drop on the Taco Bell app (aside from National Taco Day)
Several people who won the Taco Bellt also listed it for sale on ebay, listing it as a limited edition item, with prices as high as $50,000.
