I’m not ashamed to admit it.
I’m a music geek. I love everything about music. And yes, I schedule time to
watch the Grammys. Live. From start to finish.
I’m also a failure at sitting
still. And I’m terrible at watching TV. The fast forward button on the remote
control is my best friend.
Sunday night during a commercial break for the Grammys, as I was checking Twitter for the latest updates, letting the dogs out for the 19th time in an hour (good grief), and trying to decide what to have for dinner, I found myself standing still.
Sunday night during a commercial break for the Grammys, as I was checking Twitter for the latest updates, letting the dogs out for the 19th time in an hour (good grief), and trying to decide what to have for dinner, I found myself standing still.
The almost impossible happened. I stopped multi-tasking to focus 100%
of my attention on listening to Willie Nelson cover Coldplay’s “The Scientist.”
As I walked back into the living room to see what I was hearing, I found myself
watching a Chipotle commercial.
Except it was so much more
than a commercial. Titled “Back to the Start,”
it’s two minutes and twenty seconds of stop-motion animation. It’s a short
film.
Chipotle got me, Ms. Perpetual Motion, to stop and
pay attention to their message. Harder still, once they had my attention they
kept it for the full 2:20. Much beyond that, really. I’m still thinking and
writing about it today. And I’m seriously craving a Chipotle burrito bowl
vegetarian with extra guac.
They asked Willie Nelson, one
of the founders of Farm Aid, to lend his voice both figuratively and literally.
They chose Coldplay’s “The Scientist” to convey the idea of sustainable farming
and “getting back to the start,” and they wrapped the whole message in
stop-motion animation that illustrates the genesis of what they stand for as a
company: “Food with
Integrity.” Plus--be still my heart--it has a charitable component.
When purchased from iTunes, $.60 per download of Willie Nelson’s cover of the
“The Scientist” benefits
the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, which
provides funding to support sustainable agriculture, family farming, and
culinary education.
Then, as if that weren’t
brilliant enough, they elected to air their 1st
national television ad in the 18-year history of the company during the Grammys. (Willie Nelson has received
multiple Grammys on top of being a lifetime achievement award recipient, and
Coldplay performed in-house. Slam dunk.)
Why is all this so brilliant,
according to me? Let’s look at the stats.
·
“Back to the
Start” has been on YouTube since summer 2011.
·
To date, it has
been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube.
·
Shortly after its
release, it was the eighth most-shared ad on YouTube (September 2011).
·
Since the fall of
2011 it has run in 10,000 movie theaters nationwide.
·
“Back to the
Start” was named by AdWeek as one
of the 10 Best Commercials of 2011, coming
in at #2 behind Volkswagen’s “The Force.”
·
It was listed by Zeta
Interactive as one of the top 10 ads
to generate online buzz in 2011, one of only two ads to make that list without debuting
during the Super Bowl.
To sum it up, an old YouTube
viral video that has been shared millions of times and won a couple of awards last year was just repurposed as a TV
commercial aired during a music awards show with the largest viewing audience
since 1984. They can’t improve on that marketing strategy if they tried. But
I’m betting they will.
Now it’s your turn. What are
your thoughts about Chipotle’s marketing strategy?
What do you think about
stop-motion animated short films as advertising? Is this the next trend in
“traditional” advertising? Or is it so unique that once it’s been done it can’t
be recreated in a meaningful way without being compared to “that great Chipotle
YouTube video”?
2 comments:
Good eye, Amy. This isn't just a great commercial spot announcement, it's part of a great campaign that seems to be doing the company, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Denver.
In my mind, what turned the company's idea of sustainable agriculture from just another clever marketing campaign and into something that could really engage consumers was the launch of its Chiptole Cultivate Foundation in August of last year.
This commercial, really a short film, was uploaded to the Internet the same day this release came out. A press release about it came out a few days after that, linking back to the video on a Youtube channel and also on a Facebook tab. The Facebook tab linked to iTunes where the Willie Nelson song was available with the promise that 60 cents of every sale would go to the new foundation.
That alone would have been a very nice multi-channel marketing campaign built around a concept the company could get behind and one that consumers were likely to love. Putting the spot on during the Grammy's must have looked like a big risk for a company that has done no other commercial television advertising to date, despite having nearly 1,200 restaurants across the country and saw $1..67 billion in revenue during the first 9 months of 2011.
Key takeaways, from my perspective:
--combine your communication channels for maximum exposure to your target markets
--make the message about more than just you selling something to someone
--get them to engage
--make it easy for others to share your message for you
Nicely done, Chipotle.
I am so glad you commented on this spot. I was Caught up in every aspect of this ad. The music, that voice, the animation and of course, the story. Chipotle? Never heard of one. A quick google and now I am planning to eat there this weekend at a location 2 hours away. Reward a company for clever advertising, I say!
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