“Mad Mex’s core brand values are, and have always been, authenticity, connectedness and cheekiness and our new Tik Tok platform encompasses all of these. For us it’s about transparency and giving our employee network the opportunity to show internal and external audiences how they create the freshest, most nutritious Mexican food, in a fun, engaging way. This approach reinforces our overall mission to bring our amigos the best, healthy Mexican food experience. It also shows that we that we have nothing to hide – from start to finish of the customer’s dining experience.” Clovis Young, Mad Mex Founder / Head Honcho.
In an Australian first, leading Mexican restaurant group Mad Mex, is harnessing Tik Tok, one of the world’s most popular emerging social media platforms, to continue to encourage positive staff engagement amongst its 800 employees across Australia and New Zealand.
This week Mad Mex started utilising Tik Tok as an internal engagement tool to further nurture workplace happiness amongst its staff (known as Luchadores), and its already a huge hit, with one employee post already accruing 5.8 million views on the social network.
According to a 2018 national survey* more than 60 per cent of Australians over 18 value happiness over work, illustrating the importance of creating a happy work environment where employees can thrive.
“When we considered what fulfils, motivates and gets the best out of our valued Mad Mex team, it made complete sense for us to develop a creative internal resource to help bring even more positivity, fun and a sense of pride to the workplace,” said Clovis Young, Mad Mex Founder & CEO. “We’re so confident of the quality of our offering and our team, that all content featured on Mad Mex’s Tik Tok account is coming directly from our Luchadores within the restaurants…and they’re running with it!”
By jumping on board the viral Tik Tok trend, Mad Mex will utilise the unprecedented popularity of the social media platform to help promote brand values at work; giving staff the opportunity to demonstrate how they live the Mad Mex attitude, exhibit their workplace skills, and show the public they have nothing to hide when it comes to food preparation.
“Using Tik Tok as an engagement tool works for us as a brand on multiple levels: we’re aligning our core values with restaurant execution and we’re giving our teams the chance to engage our customers in a fun, cheeky way that demonstrates the Mad Mex personality,” said Young. “Mad Mex is all about full transparency in our ingredients and food preparation and Tik Tok is a great platform to help us bring to life the inner workings of our restaurants. We’re one of the first businesses in Australia to use this tech in this way, and we love the fact that our teams are already so engaged.”
In terms of its broader rebranding journey, the launch of Mad Mex’s Tik Tok platform aligns with the “Phase Two” rollout of its Fresh Fuel for Life campaign.
“The first phase of Fresh Fuel for Life was launched earlier this year and Phase Two is all about Transparency. This will take the Mad Mex brand to the next level,” said Young. “We will be distributing all of our much-loved, delicious recipes to our customers so they can create our authentic menu items in the comfort of their own kitchen. Mad Mex has always been about homemade quality and using the best possible ingredients to fuel our amigos’ lives. This new phase of the brand gives them the ability to make our delicious food at home whilst also letting them know exactly what’s in our food.”
Through a suite of commonly misinformed facts presented in Mad Mex’s cheeky style, the new recipe cards will also highlight the brand as a source of truth: helping customers realise Mad Mex’s food is made fresh every day with the best possible ingredients.
“We pride ourselves on providing real, nourishing food, for real people on the go. This is what ‘Fresh Fuel for Life’ is all about: articulating our long-held values and food philosophy and bringing them to life,” said Young.
An online training module for the Tik Tok tool is currently in development for staff to complete, helping them gain an understanding of what Tik Tok is all about and how to effectively use it.
*Survey commissioned by workplace meaning and happiness consultancy Rise (conducted by Pureprofile, June 2018)