After a landmark year in 2024 that saw the brand named the No. 1 franchise on the 2024 Franchise 500 ranking, open a pop-up ‘early retirement community for its members and put on an epic live event highlighting everything that makes the brand unique, Taco Bell is gearing up to make 2025 another standout year for its fans.
From a return to the Super Bowl to an encore of the fan-favorite Live Más Live event, the brand is leaning into its rebellious spirit and loyal fanbase to drive its next innovation chapter.
Entrepreneur spoke with Taylor Montgomery, Taco Bell’s North America Chief Marketing Officer, about the year the brand has had and, more importantly, what’s ahead in 2025.
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2024: Fandom and Innovation
Reflecting on Taco Bell’s achievements in 2024, Montgomery emphasized how the brand deepened its connection with its fans. “2024 was a year where we, as a brand, got more in touch with who we are more than ever before,” Montgomery said. “The soul of the brand is really made up of our fans. We focused a lot on finding ways to celebrate and elevate the fandom that exists across America.”
One of the year’s major highlights was Live Más Live, along with The Cantinas, a pop-up “early-retirement community,” and the nostalgia-fueled Decades Menu. Taco Bell also reached new heights in engagement, doubling its audience reach in 2024 compared to the previous year. “We’ve reached two times more consumers than ever before and we’ve been talked about five times more than last year,” Montgomery shared.
Additionally, Taco Bell’s loyalty program broke records. “The first six months of the year, we got more new loyalty customers than we did in all of 2023,” Montgomery revealed. Unique experiences like Tuesday Drops and the Cantinas, available exclusively to loyalty members, added to this momentum.
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Live Más Live ’25: Bigger and better
Building on the success of 2024, Live Más Live 2025 is poised to deliver an even more immersive and fan-focused experience and Montgomery emphasized the event’s shift toward prioritizing the people who matter most to the brand. “When we curated the guest list in 2024,” Montgomery says, “it was half celebrities and half fans. It’s going to be 90% fans and influencers this year, the people that truly love the brand.”
The highly anticipated event will give participants an exclusive look at creations straight from Taco Bell’s Test Kitchen, offering fans the rare opportunity to see what goes into the brand’s famous product development process. “We’ve got a lot more innovation in store for 2025 than we did in 2024,” Montgomery added.
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Super Bowl return
After a one-year hiatus, Taco Bell is returning to the Super Bowl in February 2025 with a campaign that’s all about one thing. “We’re going to dedicate the entire campaign to our fans,” Montgomery shared. “Maybe we’ll give some fans a chance to be in the campaign themselves.”
While specifics are still under wraps, Montgomery teased that participation would involve visiting a Taco Bell location, hinting at an interactive element that brings the campaign closer to the brand’s loyal customer base. “Everybody around the country is going to have an opportunity, one way or the other, to maybe be a part of the campaign,” he said.
This marks a bold move for Taco Bell, blending traditional advertising with experiential marketing to create a campaign that not only celebrates fandom but also invites fans to engage with the brand in a meaningful way.
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What else is ahead in 2025
Looking beyond these marquee events, Montgomery outlined Taco Bell’s vision for the coming year. “It’s going to feel like a new, elevated version of the brand,” he explains. “We’ve remixed the things that consumers love about us but put a little bit more of an elevated, modern twist on some things.”
Part of this modernization includes Taco Bell’s futuristic store designs, which have already started to roll out in select locations. These stores feature a “Defy” concept with multi-lane drive-thrus, digital order integration, and a sleek, minimalist design aimed at enhancing speed and convenience. The innovative approach focuses on blending technology and efficiency while maintaining the brand’s playful and approachable identity.
Taco Bell will also remain committed to its core identity. “Taco Bell hasn’t lost the fun,” Montgomery affirmed. “I think consumers are still going to feel how fun and irreverent and rebellious the brand and culture is.”
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‘Boldness as a rebel brand’
At the heart of Taco Bell’s strategy is its rebellious brand identity, which resonates with fans of all ages. “Everyone aspires to be a rebel because rebels are the people in culture that inspire us to be courageous and fearless,” Montgomery said. “I think that orientation and that boldness as a rebel brand is why so many people flock to it.”
This ethos fuels Taco Bell’s ability to innovate with bold, out-of-the-box ideas like the Cantinas Early Retirement Community, which sold out in under three minutes, and the highly successful Live Más Live event. The brand’s willingness to take risks has solidified its place in the cultural zeitgeist, from testing futuristic store designs to introducing fan-driven product launches.
“I think that’s what consumers demand from any relationship,” Montgomery says, “we have to be vulnerable enough to listen. What do they want from us? What are we getting right? What are we not? And then, as a brand, we have to have the courage to show them things that they never expected from us. It’s that balance between vulnerability and humility and listening and having the courage to push fans of the brand to experience new things.”
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