Why Taco Bell is going all in on menu innovation

Taco Bell held its inaugural Live Más Live event Friday in a popup space on the Las Vegas Strip, harnessing a little extra energy from the city amid its Super Bowl revelry. The brand hosted about 300 of its most loyal fans for a show that featured DJ LP Gobbi, Feed the Beat artists Armani White and Omar Apollo, a brief Taco Bell Awards ceremony, and CEO Sean Tresvant, Chief Food Innovation Officer Liz Matthews, and CMO Taylor Montgomery providing a 2024 update in front of a flashy backdrop. The new news comes on the heels of parent company Yum Brands’ Q4 call last week in which CEO David Gibbs said Taco Bell will launch at least one new product every five weeks, or twice the rate of 2023. It’s not as though the brand was stagnant in 2023, by the way. So, why even more acceleration, and why now?