Dive Brief:

• Jaja Tequila is hitting the streets of New York with a food truck tour after the one-year-old brand's Instagram photo went viral, the company exclusively shared with Marketing Dive. In April, the team posted a rendered image of a branded vehicle that mirrored classic ice cream trucks and received hundreds of emails and comments from fans asking to rent it.
• Jaja responded to the demand by purchasing a 1975 Chevrolet truck on eBay and vinyl-wrapping it to match the viral image, which had snagged thousands of likes and shares across the brand's social channels, as of press time. The van aims to serve as a moving billboard from which Jaja can distribute merchandise and use for co-branded events, including a partnership last month to dish out tequila-inspired popsicles.
• "Instagram is the nucleus of everything we do, whether it's activations or out-of-home marketing stunts, everything lives on our social feeds," co-founder Martin Hoffstein told Marketing Dive. Jaja, which launched in July 2018 and is now in 33 states, recently wrapped up an out-of-home test with 100 mini billboards across Los Angeles and a "wild poster" initiative in New York. The team plans to debut a campaign in November around the launch of Jaja's Anejo tequila product.

Dive Insight:

Jaja's turning a Photoshopped Instagram photo into a real-life tequila truck is a testament to the power of social media as a platform for testing how consumers will respond to new marketing ideas or products before they launch. The move appears to align with the rest of Jaja's messaging, which takes on a casual, humorous tone to promote its spirits and surface in-person activations.

The quick turnaround from viral social media post to tequila truck tour stems from the young company's ability to be small and nimble, Hoffstein said. "When we see success in an Instagram post or demand from somewhere else, we're able to produce something pretty quickly and get it to customers faster, compared to some of the more established companies."

Jaja is capitalizing on the popularity of food trucks, which have cropped up at music festivals and in cities for years. These food trucks offer consumers a chance to try food and beverages before ordering at a bar or restaurant, a move that will likely resonate with Jaja's target audience of millennials, who typically enjoy experiencing brands in person.

"Our marketing will continue to live on Instagram and surface events, but the whole thing with our tequila is to get people to try it and experience the brand in person," Hoffstein said.

Along with major restaurants that rely on food sales as a revenue stream, other brands have begun to incorporate food trucks into the mix as a marketing tactic. Arby's announced in July a special food truck activation for the viral "Storm Area 51" event scheduled for Sept. 20, while French's ran a Mustard Ice Cream Truck around New York in August.