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A dynamic full-funnel strategy engaged tourists and local consumers across Texas's 19 FIFA matches, positioning Portillo's as the top choice for American dining
Portillo’s Texas expansion into Dallas and Houston presented a prime white-space market opportunity. Over 80% of tournament ticket buyers traveled into these Texas markets from out of town, with 44% arriving internationally, creating an unprecedented surge of travelers actively searching for "places to eat" that deliver a quintessential American culinary experience.
At the same time, Net Conversion identified a massive, untapped cross-section: Texas's expansive local Hispanic population. Recognized as core Texas consumers, primary tournament fans, and top-tier domestic travelers, this audience represented an integral growth engine. Unlocking this market required a nuanced, bilingual creative strategy to drive top-of-funnel reach while maximizing conversion efficiency.
Activating Full-Funnel Bilingual Media to Drive Consideration and Conversion
To reach high-intent sports fans and local foodies without wasteful ad spend, Net Conversion, using their portfolio approach, designed a highly targeted, full-funnel media strategy tailored to engage high-value consumers at each milestone of the customer journey::
For low-funnel conversion, NC leveraged high-intent search & Performance Max to capture active local demand in Texas DMAs by bidding on high-value terms like "Portillos," "Portillos near me," specific store locations, and famous menu items. Performance Max expanded reach by targeting competitor brand terms, menu keywords, competitor website URLs, and first-party Online Ordering (OLO) past purchasers.
Mid-funnel consideration leveraged hyper-targeted paid social channels like Meta & TikTok to reach high-value sports fans and foodies using interest-based targeting (Soccer, FIFA World Cup, Foodies, QSR Restaurants) alongside 1st-party OLO Lookalikes. Real-time radius targeting anchored ads around stadiums and official Fan Zones, while interactive FIFA stickers and hashtags (#worldcup, #fifa2026, #fifa) boosted engagement. Captured high-intent site visitors through 30-day website remarketing.
Top-funnel awareness focused on geofenced high-impact display & streaming audio with partners like Simpli.fi to intercept foot traffic in real time by establishing precise geofences around stadiums, tournament venue perimeters, and official Fan Zones. Streaming audio and programmatic display reinforced top-of-funnel awareness, retargeting both stadium geofence visitors and 30-day website visitors across their digital devices.
Unlocking Channel Efficiency Through Bilingual Creative Strategy & Integrating Digital Signals with Physical Foot Traffic for Total Attribution
While Texas is heavily bilingual, audience research confirms that catering to consumers in both English and Spanish significantly increases cultural resonance and brand trust. Rather than treating messaging as a simple translation exercise, Net Conversion deployed a dual-language testing strategy that revealed distinct funnel efficiencies across languages:
- Spanish Assets Master Top-of-Funnel Efficiency: In upper-funnel tactics, Spanish creative delivered exceptional cost-effectiveness, yielding a -24% lower CPA on Simpli.fi and a +5% higher Engaged Listen Influenced Visit (eLiVs) rate on Spotify compared to English.
- English Assets Drive Down-Funnel Action: In mid-to-lower funnel tactics, English creative drove scale and conversion efficiency. On Meta, English assets outperformed Spanish with a -44% lower cost per purchase and an +18% higher conversion rate.
To ensure media accountability, Net Conversion monitored the full customer journey by pairing digital performance metrics with retail action. Media investments were evaluated using Cost Per Start Order (CPSO) alongside high-intent site engagement like Listen Influenced Visits (LiVs) and Engaged Listen Influenced Visits (eLiVs). In-flight cross-channel optimization allowed Net Conversion to reallocate spend to the highest-performing assets in real time.
The Results: Shattering Regional Benchmarks
By strategically pairing an iconic brand narrative with a major sports tentpole, Net Conversion transformed a competitive expansion effort into an extraordinarily efficient growth driver. The activation generated 28.6K total purchases and store visits while delivering 5.9M upper-funnel impressions across Audio, Simpli.fi, and OTT. By capitalizing on high-intent tourist traffic and testing bilingual messaging, the campaign achieved an impressive $7.96 overall ROAS, shattering historical $1.00–$2.00 Texas benchmarks (driving over a 5x increase over Texas benchmarks), and delivered a $17.39 ROAS across low-funnel Brand Search and Performance Max channels.
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