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Portillo’s, a well-established Chicago institution, actively connects with tourists searching for "things to do" and "places to eat" in the city.
In 2024, Portillo's, a celebrated Chicago-based restaurant brand, built significant brand momentum with its "Be Chicago" media campaign, positioning itself as a cornerstone of the Chicago visitor experience. This initiative successfully drove an 8% year-over-year growth in brand demand despite shifts being seen in the industry due to economic uncertainty. As a beloved Chicago institution, Portillo's solidified its reputation as a must-visit destination for tourists and locals alike.
Entering 2025, the QSR and travel industries continued to face stagnant growth due to persistent economic uncertainties. This climate led to significant shifts in how different generations approached both dining out and travel spending. While Gen X showed the highest pent-up demand for dine-in experiences (58%), younger travelers—Millennials and Gen Z—actively sought ways to cut costs by switching to lower-priced restaurants or choosing cheaper menu items. The primary challenge was to find a new, efficient way to drive qualified new user volume and revenue growth in this difficult environment, moving beyond traditional campaign strategies. The opportunity we saw was in the rise of social search, particularly on TikTok, where consumers were actively looking for travel and dining ideas as a key part of their trip planning. This insight allowed us to pivot our strategy to meet potential customers at a key moment of discovery within the travel consideration funnel.
The Media Plan
Our strategy was to leverage Portillo's status as a Chicago staple and an essential part of the "Chicago experience." We developed a paid social media plan centered on TikTok Search, targeting tourists visiting the city. This approach allowed us to intercept consumers at the precise moment they were looking for dining and activity ideas.
Targeting and Audience: The primary audience was tourists in the Chicago DMA. We used TikTok’s search functionality to target non-branded, prospective audiences with high intent, excluding all branded Portillo’s terms to ensure we were reaching new users. The strategy was later expanded to target locals in other markets, positioning a visit to their local Portillo's as a way to have a "tourist experience at home."
Strategy: Our campaign was built on the premise of TikTok Search as a more efficient channel than conventional category search. We focused on reaching a qualified, expansive audience through relevant search queries. The plan was structured to drive efficient new user volume, with performance measured using GA4 for TikTok.
Creative and Implementation: The TikTok Search campaign was set up with a series of distinct ad groups based on common user search queries, including "Breakfast in Chicago," "Restaurants in Chicago," "Chicago Date Night," "Things To Do in Chicago," "Places to Eat," and "Menu Items + Near Me." A key part of our optimization was a custom strategy similar to a "Quality Score" in Google Search. We meticulously matched the video creative thumbnails to the specific keywords a user was searching for, ensuring they were presented with the most qualified and compelling video possible. This unique approach drove higher engagement and more efficient performance.
The Results
The Portillo's TikTok Search campaign was highly successful, delivering exceptional performance metrics and proving itself as a powerful search channel. The campaign achieved a TikTok Reach of 1.2M and garnered 4.0M impressions. The strategic use of TikTok Search led to a dramatic improvement in cost efficiency, allowing us to generate qualified leads at a fraction of the cost of previous tactics, resulting in a 98% lower cost per new user and a 78% lower cost per start order.
These efficiency gains, combined with other strategic shifts in Q1, directly contributed to significant business growth. The overall paid strategy successfully drove an increase of 2.3M new users, representing a +10% growth YoY. It also led to +240k online purchases, a substantial +47% increase over the prior year, and ultimately contributed to a total revenue increase of +24% YoY. The campaign successfully captured new demand by aligning content with consumer search behavior, validating that a smart, channel-specific approach can generate a monumental return on investment.
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