With 1.6 million apps crowding the marketplace, we knew that spreading the word about Taco Bell’s new mobile payment and ordering app would require a novel approach.

So we chose a social media marketing strategy virtually guaranteed to grab the attention of Taco Bell’s tens of millions of social fans. 

We simply shut them out.

One by one, we blacked out the brand’s social channels, websites and TV ads, leaving just a single post designed to drive our followers to the new service.

Within 24 hours of the app’s launch, 75% of all stores had already processed a mobile order.

As awareness grew, the app rocketed to No. 1 in the food and beverage section of Apple’s App Store. By day 3, it had racked up two billion earned impressions, proving sometimes the best way to build brand awareness is by saying nothing at all.