Taco Bell has pulled off a major marketing coup in the midst of one of the oddest weeks of the year. Taco Bell has a sports marketing sponsorship with Major League Baseball for the World Series. Unfortunately, the World Series was over in four games and was one of the least watched major sporting events in some time. As it turns out, the games were played just a couple of weeks before the presidential elections that were dominating the news. Then came Hurricane Sandy. Who could get a marketing message out when the target audience was distracted by the dominance of these two news items? It looked like Taco Bell was the victim of rather bad timing. However, thanks to some very clever marketing and a quick response to the times, Taco Bell came out a winner.

Taco Bell announced during the World Series that if any player on either team stole a base, they would give a free Locos Taco to everyone in America. Yes, you read it correctly: every single person in America could request their free taco on a specified day. The base was stolen during the second game by San Francisco's Angel Pagan and this past Tuesday, October 30 from 2-6 p.m. was designated as the date and time the giveaway would happen. Suddenly, you had a marketing promotion that transcended the sporting event. This is significant. Most of the time in sports marketing, the sponsorships are quickly forgotten. This promotion went viral, with social media abuzz with the promotion. People who cared not a lick for baseball stood in long lines on Tuesday to claim their free taco. Now what the people behind the marketing at Taco Bell know is that people are not just going to order the one free taco. They are going to purchase more food and drink. This was a huge boon for their business on October 30 and beyond. It was important for Taco Bell to get a big bounce out of what has become their most popular product launch in many years. The Locos Taco has been a big hit for Taco Bell, which has sold over 200 million of the Doritos cheddar cheese shelled products in the five months since it hit the market. If they can get more people to try the product, the trend is that they will be back to purchase more.

But you might have also picked up on the bigger issue Taco Bell faced. On October 30, Hurricane Sandy came ashore and closed down commerce in a good portion of the eastern seaboard states. It dumped torrential rains and deep snow as it made its way through the upper Midwest. What do you do when your big event is rained out? Again Taco Bell made a strategic move to keep their name and their promotion alive. They made an announcement on their Facebook page that, although their stores would be closed in affected areas, they would be giving out free tacos at a later date. This story made an impact on customers. This post was "liked" by over 19,000 people in less than 24 hours. When stores opened back up on Wednesday, they began handing out free tacos to first responders. Free Locos Tacos became part of the hurricane relief story.

How do you make a sponsorship work for you? First, make sure you have something that engages the customer. In Taco Bell's case, this was not the first time they have promoted an all-America giveaway. They did the very same promotion during the 2007 World Series as well. It's just now, they have a very popular product brand that they are adding to the mix. The enormity of the giveaway - offered to all of the 311 million people who live in the United States - and the popularity of their branded Locos Taco made this promotion work. What would engage your customer's interest? What would really make them stand in line to get your product? Secondly, it is never a bad idea to let your customers see you as more than just a business that wants to turn a profit. Getting involved in humanitarian efforts or charitable causes speaks well of you as a company. But Taco Bell was able to tie their product brand to their charitable efforts. As long as this isn't seen as crossing a line of good taste and pandering for business on the misery of others, do it. The reason we brand products is so people will become aware of our products and remember them the next time they want to make a purchase. This is a major task of marketing. Where you can push the brand in good taste, do so.

There is a third reason Taco Bell was brilliant in this promotion. Their regular hard-shelled tacos are on their value menus. During our economic hard times, the fast food industry has promoted its lowest priced items to keep customers coming in the doors. Everyone has a dollar menu. The Locos Tacos sell for 30 cents more than a regular hard-shelled taco. You may not think that 30 cents represents that big of a deal. But it increases prices by 30% by changing out the shell. That's $58 million above what they would have sold those 200 million regular tacos for in the five months I wrote about earlier. By increasing the buzz around their product, they have quietly raised their prices and their profits.

Product specific marketing can be successful if you have a product people really want and you can get them to try it for the first time. Keep an eye on Taco Bell going forward. They found their big product and they know their market. Expanding the market in a very competitive industry becomes the next challenge.