​Jack in the Box was in danger of losing more ground in their most valuable daypart – late-night – to encroaching, high-spending QSR behemoths. With a daypart Jack in the Box had literally pioneered about to become QSR’s’s biggest battleground, our objective was to defend our turf, maintaining the perception that Jack is the place to hit up after hours, with the best and most indulgent late-night food.

Maintaining the perception of having delicious late-night food is critical to staying in the consideration set of our target audience. As the competition began to invest additional dollars into the daypart, we knew they would try to chip away at our food credibility. At launch, Jack’s “best late-night food” perception was 69% vs. category average of 57%, a +12PPT lead we’ve held consistently for years.

Late-night, for our audience, is a moment of escape, a moment where their time finally becomes theirs. A time to reclaim some of that unruly spirit they hold deep down.

Our idea: create an experience that embodies the feel of late-night, encapsulating it as a moment of delicious defiance.

We began by partnering with Snoop Dogg –no stranger to late night, and a celebrity with an authentic connection to our brand– and creating a new limited time menu item, “Snoop’s Munchie Meal.”

Then we give Snoop the keys to his own restaurant, “Dogg in tha Box.” Snoop chose the location: Inglewood, CA, a neighborhood he knows and loves. “Dogg in tha Box” was an immersive experience for the community and Snoop fans–a nonstop, 3-day party complete with a fully Snoopified menu and decor, 90’s concert-style merch, low-rider club exhibitions, local muralists, a DJ-drama curated playlist and more.

Jack’s first last-night push more than a decade ago was designed to attract Millennials. But to protect our late-night empire, we needed to connect with 3 different cohorts: Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z. With our competitors outspending us 5:1, it was crucial that we bridge generational divides and invite new people into the fold.

Snoop Dogg’s broad cultural appeal and association with late-night and partying made him an ideal partner. But we didn’t just give him his own Munchie Meal and make a few commercials. We gave him the keys to his own restaurant, painstakingly “Snoopifying” everything about it, from the signage to decor to the name of every item on the menu board.

We began with a social-first introduction of the partnership on X, via a poll from Jack. 92% of respondents voted that they wanted Jack to partner with Snoop. Multiple paid and organic social moments then put the Jack and Snoop story on display, while comedic TVCs showed them mid-collaboration. Product-focused units drove interest in Snoop’s indulgent new Munchie Meal.

But consumer interest and delight hit new heights with our experiential event in Inglewood, CA. For 4 nights, fans flocked to Dogg in tha Box, a completely Snoopified restaurant, with a redone interior, a menu with each item renamed by Snoop, exclusive free merch, a curated playlist, low rider club exhibitions and more. We invited everyone: local government, community members, influencers, fans and media.

The “Dogg in the Box” activation broke through into national popular culture, with coverage from CNN, USA Today, Fox and NBC and more. The effort surpassed Jack in the Box’s previous high-water mark of 1.3B earned media impressions with 1.8B total impressions.

While the original mission had been to defend Jack’s late-night leadership, we actually grew it.

This work created growth in nearly every business metric that matters to Jack in the Box, including daypart transactions, daypart sales, contribution to total sales, and perception. It lifted late-night’s contribution to total sales by nearly 2 percentage points from a static 3-year average.

Late-night transactions up +9.6%

Late-night sales up +13.4% YoY

Late-night’s contribution to total sales was the highest percentage in the brand’s history, capping a 3-year static average.

In short, it was the best-performing late night window in the 70-year history of the brand.