Taco Bell's "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" Promotion Provides Positive Lift in Houston, LA During World Series

Data insights firm Sense360 took a look at how well Taco Bell’s “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion performed following the 2017 World Series between the Houston Astros and thee LA Dodgers. The data shows a 23 percent lift in visit share at Taco Bell in Houston and Los Angeles. The business also saw a visit share lift of 12 percent for the rest of the country.

Afternoon Snack (3-5pm local time) had the largest absolute increase as well as relative. Afternoon Snack in L.A. & Houston saw a 110 percent relative lift from the pre-promotion period. The promotion was from 2-6pm local times. October 4th (National Taco Day) is part of the Benchmark period. This is the reason for the spike in the beginning of that benchmark (pre-Limited Time Offer period). 

L.A./Houston also saw 45 percent increase in new guests visit share vs. benchmark period. Rest of the country was 14 percent.

Taco Bell “Light guests’” (those with less than four visits per month) business was captured from Chick-fil-A, Sonic, KFC and Wendy’s across the country. Additionally, Taco Bell saw 17 percent less lift in national visit share during the same promotion time period in 2017 vs. 2016.

2017 vs 2016 Steal a Base Promotion

Note: Giveaway this year was the day of Game 7 between 2-6pm local. Game 7 this year started at 5:20pm pacific time. 

However, when it comes to how well the promotion did nationally, the statistics paint a different story. For instance there was a -17 percent less lift in national visit share in 2017 vs. 2016 promotion and a -19 percent in light guest visits/-4 percent heavy guest visit share in 2017 vs. 2016. Looking at the prior period regional report, a majority of the increase is driven by light guests. That said, it seems that Taco Bell's share among light guests is less than last year, and that McDonald's seems to be the brand responsible for absorbing a big chunk of the difference.

Los Angeles saw the largest uptick in visit share compared to the prior year while Houston was in the top five, even though the market saw a slight declined. Meanwhile, Chicago – which had its Cubs team in the World Series in 2016 – saw the largest decline of all the DMAs that had sample share enough to be measured with a nearly 42 percent decline from the prior year.