Xenophon Strategies

Chipotle's Hog Heaven

Jason Meath

How does a burrito company effectively communicate its position on drugging swine?  Enlist the help of a country music legend and an up-and-coming British animated filmmaker, of course!  Recently, the Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle implemented a brilliant communications strategy based around a well produced short video.  

Watch it here:

It was released just this week and quickly went viral.   In this case, video, music, CGI and social media are bundled to make a point transcending results of traditional communication.   Willie Nelson, covering Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” provides the soundtrack to a CGI story that conjures similarities to Pixar’s famous animated shorts, but the real point is for the company to better communicate its views on farming and sustainability.  So why go through all the hullabaloo?  

Different, rapidly changing times call for different, innovative brand communications.

Not only is the piece generating hundreds of thousands of “likes,” views, blog posts, Facebook posts and news stories but it will be shown as a lead-in before feature films in 5,700 movie theaters nationwide.  The Willie Nelson song is on iTunes and over half of download proceeds will go to Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation, funding initiatives for sustainable agriculture, family farming and culinary education. This campaign is bundled better than a super burrito with extra salsa!

The only way all this works is the realization that we must think differently to communicate.  Look for others who share your views -- in this case, Willie Nelson happens to be a champion of family farms.  Connect with the audience you are talking to — the “Toy Story” generation is accustomed to receiving entertainment and information through CGI mediums, just as the “Facebook generation” retrieves news and information, well, through Facebook.   Above all, nothing goes viral unless it strikes a chord.  Chipotle’s “Back to the Start” is not only quirky, but emotionally engaging – I’m hog wild about it.  

Tweet this link

« return to blog | Aug 31, 2011 | advertising | Chipotle