EL POLLO LOCO

Working on El Pollo Loco felt like being an extreme ad sports athlete, maintaining a no-off-day, boot camp level regimen at the Ad Gym. Three workouts a day, treadmill in between, prepping five clean steamed chicken and broccoli meals, 4am cold plunge, recording a podcast, wearing a red light mask, and keeping a sleep journal.

In other words, like a normal AOR relationship in modern advertising. But here’s the thing—it paid off.

EPL’s first year with Innocean, a flat year for QSR in general, yielded:

8% sales growth
In store traffic up by 16%
Rewards Loyalty spiked by 20%
20 new locations, two new states
A 17% Q4 stock price jump in a SINGLE DAY

Social

We were scoped for all posts, in all formats, on all channels, in all aspect ratios, in English and Spanish, stills and video, with social assets incorporated into every shoot. Instead of a shot list, deliverables were plotted on a matrix.

This 2001 A Space Odyssey-style post (in both teaser and reveal edits) was an additional item in the launch campaign that I shepherded from day one. This video was what our clients asked to show at their company all-hands meeting to get everyone psyched for the biggest launch in EPL history.

Activation - Leg & Thigh Day Towels

In the first days of January, when people are hitting the gym with New Year's resolutions to exercise and eat better, we had fitness influencers pass out these QR-code enabled towels, redeemable for a protein-rich, post-workout meal at El Pollo Loco. The video was launched on Tik Tok, and in less than a day, all 500 coupons were cashed in.

Rewards App signups spiked by 150%. This pioneering step in Towel Technology is the most successful social activation in El Pollo Loco history.

Case Study - Volume Wall (TVC)

EPL’s Loco Tenders launch was shot utilizing Unreal Engine and a multi-panel volume wall. We found the efficiency and time savings of being able to control factors like location, set dressing, lighting and weather to be equal to the near-limitless creative possibilities that come with being able to control the location,
set dressing, lighting and weather.

Like the case study says, it’s difficult to tell which of our ads were shot practically.

Social Activation - Tortilla Facemask

One of those ideas you have to look up because it seems like someone else would have done it already. Made for National Burrito Day (and teased on April Fool’s), Tortilla Face Masks encouraged a day of premium self care. They were for everyone who always wanted to put a tortilla on their face but never had a good reason.

We did an initial run of 500 on a shoestring budget, and set a 12-month calendar to give them out 50 at a time, from live experiential events like Coachella to social-driven giveaways.

Site UX/Digital

The very first sprint we did after winning EPL was a full site reskinning and brand book, which of course turned into more of a full rebranding and redesign. Reimagining their Rewards page led to a restructuring of the program tiers and rewards app. And a bolstering of their Catering page led to a new lead acquisition strategy for presence at events. Each of which necessitated promotion on social channels.

Twitch Partnership

These images won’t look like much, but as a part of the launch of Loco Tenders we engineered a 3-hour-plus livestream, where Fortnite players integrated a discussion of spice levels and dipping sauce viability. Special assets had to be captured on set, stills and video, for social, digital and PR purposes.

The cut integrating the TVC talent didn’t make the final cut however. Judge for yourself if she’s believable as a gamer.

The EPL skillset:

Website UX, rewrite & redesign
Social activations
TVC production
Event & Experiential
Influencer marketing
TikTok (voting stickers!)
IG carousels
In store POP, IPB, menus
Drivethru translites
Social stills capture
Social video capture
Calendar management
Food macro photography
Partnerships (Twitch!)
Internal videos
All in exponential aspect ratios

and so, so many case studies.

Case Study - Let’s Get Loco Strategy (Cannes)

As a wrap up, this case study was produced for the Strategy category at Cannes. Our Strategists may have been a little delirious from the frenetic output—sort
of a runner’s high—but it showcases the impressive results we saw from an astounding breadth of multi-channel work, and a year that felt like a manic episode. Cannes was definitely a reach, but I bet we have the Effies on lock.