Del Taco Pushes On With 4 Shops

Completing a three-month review, fast-food chain Del Taco is asking its new agencies to quickly serve up a broadcast campaign by mid-April.
The spring launch calls on four separate creative and media shops to roll out a coordinated merchandising and media campaign that falls within an estimated $10 million budget, officials with the Laguna Hills, Calif.-based company confirmed.
The agencies are G&M Plumbing, Santa Monica, Calif., for radio and TV spots; Red Monkey Ads & Ideas, Portland, Ore., for merchandising and packaging; and Paradise Media, Eugene, Ore., for media buying outside Los Angeles. Carat ICG in L.A. will continue to handle media buying here. WongDoody, Los Angeles, previously handled creative.
Del Taco vp of marketing Tim Hackbardt said dividing up the work among the four specialized agencies will better serve the client’s goals.
“I just want to pay the people who do the work, not all of the others in between,” said Hackbardt, who joined Del Taco from Taco Time in November.
G&M principals Glenn Miller and Mickey Taylor said they are still unclear, however, what direction the new campaign will take. “We know there are challenges for Del Taco, especially with a 400-pound Chihuahua breathing down their necks,” Taylor said.
The account went into review in January following the settlement of a $1 million lawsuit filed by TriStar Pictures and Zorro Productions over Del Taco’s use of a masked Zorro-like character in its ads. The settlement required no payment of damages, but limited Del Taco’s use of the character, created by WongDoody.