When did sports become central to Taco Bells media strategy?
I’m a believer in evolution, not revolution — so we started making a major conscious strategic shift in fourth-quarter 2001, and by 2004, we sort of came into our own with it. Q: What sports are you involved in now? A: Our two league sponsorships are NBA and MLB; for the past three years we have been official QSR of the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and championship. We are also official QSR of the summer and Winter X Games on ESPN, and while we don’t have league deals or rights, we are major players in college football, and we dabble in NFL and NASCAR as well. One of the reasons we love sports is that our target is adults 18 to 34. Q: Why such a male and sports focus? A: While our customer base is fairly even between men and women, men are more challenging to reach media-wise — if you look at TV in general, it skews 60% female. But sports are a great place to reach them, and women also watch a lot of sports, as well. If anything, when we made this shift several yea
