Taco Bueno has announced a new addition to their tasty menu and it is a nod to the Texas staple, brisket. Their new hickory smoked brisket is a little bit country and a little bit Mexico according to the new spots produced by the Plein Air agency and shot by Noonday Pictures‘s Josh Blaylock.
Melissa Powers, Taco Bueno’s Director of Brand Marketing & Innovation, stated, “Noonday was fantastic at bringing the creative vision to life. They have always been great to work with – willing to work within our tight timelines without sacrificing any of the quality, extremely hospitable, and very talented.”
She added, “We are thrilled with how the brisket campaign has turned out and owe a huge thank you to our agency, Plein Air, for their creativity, strategic thinking, and ability to bring our new products to life in such a memorable way.
This campaign has exceeded expectations and had an immediate impact on the business. Since its launch, we are seeing the highest year over year sales results in more than three years. Customers are loving the products and giving us great feedback about the marketing campaign. We are looking forward to seeing how the remainder of the campaign will continue to bring new energy into the Taco Bueno business.”
Josh Blaylock | Director-Noonday Pictures #HouseofFoodDallas
The spot’s were directed by Josh Blaylock with Noonday Picture’s #HouseofFoodDallas. He stated, “Working on this project was a pleasure. Since first seeing the creative, I was excited. I love shooting food and look forward to anytime I’m able to involve talent as well. As we saw in casting, there’s magic that happens when these musicians were able to cut loose and let their personalities come through. I wanted to create an atmosphere on set that reflected that magic.
Working closely with Post Asylum’s talented composer, Gary Parks, we directed our talent through a few scenarios, and encouraged them to relax and find their personalities through their performances. This proved to be successful and allowed us to move quickly. The folks at Taco Bueno’s agency Plein Air, we were able to know exactly what we wanted to capture and communicate clearly throughout the production. All these factors in combination gave us enough time to shoot extra coverage of our players and the delicious looking products. I was happy to be able to give our talented friends at Post Asylum, options to play with as they worked their magic and pieced it all together, and as always, they did a fantastic job.”
Plein Air CEO, Paul McEnany, added, “Taco Bueno was born before we had a term for Tex Mex, so we wanted the brand to own its rightful place in the history of the cuisine. For this campaign, we were launching a new product that helped us celebrate the connection between the flavors of Texas and Mexico. The brisket menu itself was so good and so right for Taco Bueno that it made the challenge clear for us as soon as we tasted it.
The campaign is a metaphor for that connection, with our mariachi and Texas country players dueling back and forth across each spot before blending into a perfect melody.
Both the Noonday and Post Asylum teams were perfect partners to bring this idea to life. For Noonday, there’s just no one better at shooting food, and there’s nothing more important than creating something that’s both visually exciting and appetite-inducing. The campaign could’ve fallen flat without the work of Josh, ML, Cindy and the whole Noonday team. Post Asylum also made this happen on an incredibly tight timeline and made it look easy. Pure Evil Music deserves a special call-out. Without Gary’s guidance on the music, we wouldn’t have been able to capture that kind of magic.
Lastly, none of this would have happened without the advice and support from Melissa Powers and the whole team at Taco Bueno. We treat projects like this as a collaboration. Just like any good collaboration, you need good partners at every level. It’s a pleasure to watch them bring this important brand back to life. It’s their investment in the future of a brand for which we have such a personality affinity that makes the process getting to the work as thrilling as the end product.”
Graham Haygood, Managing Director/EP at Post Asylum included, “When Alan and Paul reached out to us for turn-key production, I knew we were in for a fun project. Sure enough, we loved the playful dueling guitars concept and immediately unleashed Pure Evil Music to create the perfect “Tex vs Mex’ original score. Our Sr. Composer, Gary Parks, quickly developed music that captured both genres distinctly and then blended them together harmoniously. In addition, Gary played a major roll in casting our on-camera guitar players, teaching them his music and directing their playing on set. This allowed us to capture live musical moments that made it into some of the final spots.”
“Knowing that both beautiful food photography and a great touch working with musician/real-people talent would be critical to our success, partnering with Josh Blaylock and Noonday was a no-brainer. It’s no exaggeration to say Josh is one of the best rising young directors in the U.S.”
Watch spots…
