A Refined Strategy That Included Niche Passes, Influencers, and Managed Text Messaging Has Nearly 9,000 Beef Lovers Tasting Their Way Through Texas
.png)
Goal
The Texas Beef Council is a non-profit organization that is tasked with promotion, education, and research to increase the demand for beef. They operate under a consumer-facing brand called Beef Loving Texans and have been a partner of Bandwango for a few years. Adriana Mora, Manager of Consumer Marketing, shared what initially prompted her to start a statewide check-in challenge promoting beef. “We wanted to provide our consumer base with more tangible experiences with our brand. We have a lot of engagement on social media, but we wanted to see what else we could do to further connect people with Beef Loving Texans, and round out their involvement and connection to the Beef Loving Texans community.”
The first couple of years were good, but Beef Loving Texans wanted to find a way to optimize the program and create an even larger impact. With Bandwango’s Experience Builder, partners now have the opportunity to build an unlimited number of passes. That opened up a whole new world to this statewide organization, and Beef Loving Texans saw a golden opportunity. In Texas, there is diversity in regions and cultures, and BLT wanted to be able to target different audiences through their initiative.
Solution
In addition to the statewide Ultimate Beef Trail, in 2025 Beef Loving Texans also created a variety of niche passes that are more regionalized. These include:
- Central Texas BBQ Trail
- Dallas-Ft. Worth Steak Trail
- Surf & Turf Gulf Coast Adventure
- Houston Burger Blitz
- Panhandle Country Fried Steak Quest
- South Texas Tex-Mex Trail
All passes are available on a dedicated landing page on their website. When a passholder signs up for one of the passes, they will see the other passes displayed when they hit the Explore tab on their pass. From there, they can easily sign up for any of the other passes as well.
“We've had a lot of success with those,” said Mora, “because I think it's interesting to explore the diverse dishes that make Texas special, and perhaps more attainable, to go to restaurants in your area..”
Beef Loving Texans also implemented a new filter on the passes called “Rancher Recs.” In a genius move, they utilized those who know beef better than anyone – the ranchers. “We sent out a survey to our ranchers,” she explained. “We asked them for restaurant recommendations, and then we put those restaurants on the pass and created the new filter. That’s fun because it connects our users to our stakeholders.” The added benefit of this strategy also allowed them to have more restaurants included on the pass – and quality ones that came directly as recommendations from the ranchers.
Marketing the Passes
In addition to a paid social media campaign and email marketing, there have been a few other key marketing tactics that have helped drive the success of the passes.
Influencers
“The influencer engagement piece was the most successful method to promote the passes,”
said Mora. She worked with five influencers to promote the passes. The chosen influencers all had a couple of things in common – they represented travel and/or food and were from Texas. “We provided them with a creative brief, and their task was to choose a restaurant on one of the passes, visit it, talk about the best beef dish they had while eating there, and then talk about the pass,” explained Mora.
Managed Text Messaging
Beef Loving Texans also started using Managed Text Messaging this year. Mora shared, “The process is really easy. The Bandwango team handles everything.” The initiative showed a quick impact. After the first round of messaging, there was a 70% increase in pass sign-ups. It kept passholders engaged as well. In the immediate days following the message, there was a 27% increase in check-ins.
Public Relations
The Beef Loving Texans team also sent out a press release. Mora shared,
“We got more earned media than we ever had with this program, and I would associate that with the niche passes. There's so much interest in these regional concepts, and local media was excited to see their part of the state featured. So that was cool to see – especially in regions that we typically don't get media hits in.”
Some of the published stories included:
Results
Mora said one of the first things that attracted BLT to the Bandwango platform was the ability to have real-time reporting data. “A great part of working with Bandwango was the metrics that we were provided,” she explained. “We had been working year after year to get better metrics and to be able to better show the success of our marketing efforts. ”
BLT is especially excited to have impressive metrics to show to those stakeholders this year. From March to December 2025, 8,870 beef lovers signed up for the passes. The campaign has also resulted in 3,508 new email subscribers. The passes have shown an additional benefit of helping Beef Loving Texans build their email database of subscribers that can be retargeted with beef-related messaging.
Beef Loving Texans’ Tips for Success
Beef Loving Texans’ desire to optimize the pass and look for ways to grow it allowed them the opportunity to see impressive results. They’ve worked hard to create a curated list of experiences that highlight the best beef dishes and restaurants in Texas, and they’ve shared a few of their personal tips for success.
Take time to understand your audience
"Creating those regional passes was a highly successful strategy that immediately captured public attention,” said Mora. “We sought to powerfully distill and showcase the unique relationship between Texas culture and beef. Texans' passion for steak, burgers, tacos, BBQ, and country-fried steak served as our inspiration. By investing significant creative effort into the passes' artwork and naming conventions, and by deeply relating them to these cherished Texan culinary traditions, we successfully incorporated the spirit of the state, which we believe was key to their widespread success."
Partner with other organizations to help you grow your list of businesses
Beef Loving Texans partnered with the state’s ranchers to get recommendations of restaurants to include on the passes, but there was another partnership that helped them grow their list of restaurants on the pass as well. “We have also worked with the Texas Restaurant Association to get more restaurants on the pass,” said Mora.
Have a good selection of prizes
“Invest in good prizes,” said Mora. Beef Loving Texans has had an online merchandise store since 2018, allowing them to gauge the types of items people wanted. “I took those insights and decided on our prizes,” said Mora. “For example, the lowest tier prize is a sticker – everyone loves stickers.” Other prizes include a canvas bag, a t-shirt, a hat, and a YETI tumbler. They also have a grand prize sweepstakes that includes a weekend getaway to Austin, Texas, and a hands-on Smoking 101 course led by Beef Loving Texans’ pitmaster.
Use influencers and messaging to help promote your campaign
“People really resonated with the influencer videos,” said Mora. “I think that's a really great tactic, because these are people that people follow and trust.” Messaging was an important part of the campaign as well, and she said, “The increase in sign-ups comes from text messaging and email marketing efforts to further engage our audiences.” Using Bandwango’s managed text messaging has also helped with time management. “That's been a great investment because it's a lift off our plate.”
Utilize the metrics to help tell a story to your stakeholders
Beef Loving Texans is using the data-driven metrics found in their Bandwango dashboard to have a story for their stakeholders. “We're able to report on how many sign-ups and check-ins we had, how many restaurants participated, and how that affects the engagement of our audience,” said Mora. “We’re telling the story of people connecting with Beef Loving Texans, visiting restaurants, and even increasing tourism in Texas, as we see people from across the country using our pass. ”
Conclusion
“We don't see ourselves stopping this program anytime in the near future,” said Mora. “It's been a great addition to our consumer marketing efforts, and it's provided our users with a tangible experience to connect to our brand.”
She also shared that the overall impact has surpassed the amount of time she’s put into it. “We're thankful to be confident in the impact of this program that has shown great results without a heavy lift on our staff. I'm grateful that the Bandwango platform is so turnkey.”
So what’s next for Beef Loving Texans? The current passes will continue into the foreseeable future, but there’s also another one that Beef Loving Texans is working on. 2026 holds a lot of opportunities with America 250, FIFA World Cup, and one other milestone: the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
“We’re currently working with seven other states to produce a Route 66 pass.” explained Mora. “It'll be a little different than what we're doing here in Texas, because not only will it cross state lines, but it'll be more than just restaurant check-ins.” We’re excited to follow along and see the success of that campaign, too.
Learn more about how digital passports are revolutionizing food and beverage associations, and book a free demo with the Bandwango team to see how you can create your own impactful initiative in your state or community.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
%20(1).png)
