Taco Tweets Go Grande in Texas

It’s probably possible to throw a rock in Texas and hit someone who can make good tacos. Evidently, convenience stores are a hotbed of the crunchy Mexican staple. Firehouse, a Dallas-based advertising agency, developed a unique, digital-billboard campaign for Stripes, a convenience-store chain with more than 500 locations throughout Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Approximately half its locations operate Laredo Taco Co. restaurants, and Susser Holdings, Stripes’ parent company, hired Firehouse to spice up its foodservice business.

Stripes and Laredo Taco Co. aficionados increasingly follow the company via Twitter (at presstime, Stripes enjoyed approximately 1,000 Twitter followers) and frequently post tweets that rave about its fire. Seeking to reach a broader audience, Firehouse partnered with Lamar Advertising to place the campaign on eight digital billboards in six markets. The campaign, which ended March 3, uses Lamar’s iSpot, technology, which allows billboards to include live-data feeds (and, integrate Twitter and dynamic billboards, two surging media platforms).

Kari Streiber, Firehouse’s public-relations director, said, although the feedback may not have the polish of a professionally produced, advertising campaign, she said it provides a level of authenticity a traditional ad campaign can’t. She said out-of-home advertising represents approximately 15% of the agency’s business, but that it’s enjoying steady growth thanks in large part to Texas’s booming, digital-billboard market.