Chili's
Drive awareness of Chili’s new PATRÓN Frozen Margaritas through TikTok Pulse Custom Lineups
The objective
Tapping into the power of TikTok Pulse Custom Lineups
Chili's is a casual American restaurant chain known for its Southwestern American–inspired menu, including burgers, ribs, and fajitas. They launched a new line of PATRÓN Frozen Margaritas during the summer and knew they needed an ad product that was just as unique and premium as their beverages.
The solution
Boosting awareness through relevant placements
After learning about the new Custom Lineups product within TikTok Pulse, they decided to build their own Premium Frozen Margaritas Pulse, which would have Chili’s new PATRÓN Frozen Margarita ads appearing directly after user generated content (UGC) of frozen beverages.
There was a strong need for hyper contextual targeting. Chili's Custom Pulse for this campaign not only targeted new users who would likely engage with the promotion, it also reached Chili's loyalists who naturally engaged with Chili's evergreen content.
Users were primed to see ads for PATRÓN Frozen Margaritas immediately after watching top-trending frozen beverage UGC, reinforcing the effectiveness of contextually aligned marketing.
The results
Maximizing results with contextually aligned ads
While Chili’s aimed for strong awareness performance, the results exceeded expectations: a 21.9% lift in ad recall, an 11.3% lift in awareness, and a 52% increase in average watch time. The success underscores the impact of placing ads within highly contextually relevant content.
Armed with these strong results, Chili’s is planning to incorporate contextual lineups with TikTok Pulse into more of their brand and tentpole campaigns.
Tips & takeaways
Use contextual lineups to launch new menu items: Chili’s placed ads directly after frozen beverage UGC to introduce its new PATRÓN frozen margaritas.
Let content context do the targeting: TikTok Pulse Custom Lineups helped reach both new users and existing Chili’s fans through relevant content environments.
Context drives attention and awareness: Ads shown next to related UGC delivered stronger ad recall, awareness, and watch time.
TikTok served as a key channel for Chili’s to introduce its new premium frozen margaritas, and the custom product lineup was an effective way to share the news with an audience looking for frozen beverages during the summer. The launch was a success—within the first quarter, Chili’s was selling twice as many new frozen margs.