Taco Bell launched breakfast successfully for the first time nationally in 2014, quickly increasing breakfast awareness and becoming profitable. However, nine months after launch, breakfast success was flattening out. During launch, we started a two-horse race with McDonald’s, the QSR breakfast leader, who were still outspending us and outselling us. They’d built a 40-year legacy on the world-renowned Egg McMuffin and we were still newcomers on the scene with the “A.M. Crunchwrap” — a product no one had heard of.

To sell more at breakfast time we needed to continue to go head-to-head with McDonald’s in a new, fresh way. Our challenge was morning routine. Breakfast is the most routine meal of the day with 56% of people intending to revisit the same QSR for breakfast (The NPD Group/Crest). It’s not just repeat restaurants; it’s repeat meals too. And since McDonald’s is the biggest breakfast player, it’s the biggest beneficiary of this inertia.

Our primary target was people who already eat at Taco Bell, but not yet for breakfast. They are a social and spontaneous group of 18- to 34-year olds who love to try new experiences. And while they saw themselves as risk takers, they were unwittingly playing it safe with their breakfast and unwilling to break their routine. Why? Because their adventurous night spirit ceased to exist in the morning. They became sleepwalkers who sought comfort in the familiar Egg McMuffin they had always known since childhood. They didn’t intend to live on autopilot and when we pointed this out to them, they were horrified. They wanted to think for themselves and were motivated by the bold Taco Bell breakfast decision.

We had to wake people up and snap them out of their compliance. The core of our campaign strategy: “Rebel against breakfast brainwashing.”

Inspired by political and social movements, we identified five key phases of a rebel movement, which became the model for our campaign. First we identified an enemy — “The Routine Republic” and launched with propaganda posters and a propaganda website on loop. Then we declared our mission with a three minute film depicting the soulless breakfast empire and recruited rebel influencer leaders to the cause through swag. Finally, we seeded symbols of change on social and celebrated a new reality that culminated, “Breakfast Defectors Day” with testimonials and a free breakfast giveaway.

Our goal was a 10% increase in traffic and sales. We doubled our traffic goal, and we outperformed our sales goal by 60% (Client data). And we did it by creating defectors. We successfully broke people’s routine, generating a 20-point shift between McDonald’s in Taco Bell’s favor for “Is part of my breakfast routine.” This shift created the opportunity for people to compare our product to McDonald’s, and Taco Bell came out on top with a 27-point shift in our favor for “Has better breakfast items than other fast food restaurants” (client brand tracking). The week culminating in Breakfast Defectors Day was the single biggest sales week in Taco Bell history.