Strategic Objective: Reassert Chipotle as the undisputed leader in sustainable food to cut through the media blitz of heavyweight fast food chains whose marketing radically changed to include buzzwords such as “wholesome,” “fresh,” “natural,” “local,” and “premium” – all aimed at taking Chipotle’s share.
Solution Overview: Make Chipotle’s brand truth entertaining and integrate its values into digital experience that would engage mobile audiences. To that end, we launched “The Scarecrow” a mobile-oriented entertainment platform consisting of a short film and a mobile game. This platform would actively engage and educate consumers and affirm Chipotle’s food sustainability leadership position throughout the immersive experience encompassing YouTube, social media, gaming and music.
The Scarecrow entertainment franchise (an animated short, mobile game, and song) depicts a scarecrow’s journey to bring wholesome food back to the people. For this narrative to start dialogue among consumers, the storyline, technology, aesthetics, and user experience needed to exceed the highest standards in the film, gaming and music ecosystems. To accomplish this challenging goal, we surrounded Chipotle with top-tier producers. Ultimately, each component plays an integral role in shaping Chipotle’s narrative about the importance of sustainable farming.
The film, directed by the Academy Award-winning Moonboot Studios, is set in a dystopian world where food production is controlled by fictional industrial giant Crow Foods. The short was distributed on YouTube with no paid media for its first four weeks, in-game, and alongside the theatrical release of the documentary “GMO OMG.” Additionally, the film is set to a remake of the song “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” performed by Grammy Award-winning artist, Fiona Apple and is available on iTunes for charity.
The mobile game continues the film’s story. Players help The Scarecrow correct the wrongs committed by Crow Foods. Available in the iOS App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, the game allows players to fly through the City of Plenty to transport confined animals to open pastures, fill fields with diverse crops at Scarecrow Farms, and serve wholesome food to the citizens at Plentyfull Plaza, all while avoiding menacing Crowbots. A rewards program was seamlessly integrated into the game. As players advanced in the gameplay, we rewarded them with Chipotle food in the form of BOGO coupons for learning about the issues that the game addresses. These coupons were delivered to game participants’ devices via text message.
Chipotle drove the conversation about food, reclaiming its leadership position. The Scarecrow franchise was a hit, creating a conversation about food in popular culture that has generated over 614 million PR impressions to date. Since the film’s launch, it has been viewed over 12,800,000 times on YouTube. Over 650,000 people have downloaded the game, with an average playing session length of 5 minutes. The rewards program was also a huge success in increasing consumption.
Since launch, the game issued 60,052 digital BOGOs with a 64% redemption rate. Finally, the song debuted #32 on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart and has been purchased over 13,000 times on iTunes. Most importantly, The Scarecrow reignited Chipotle in conversation. In its first month, the campaign sparked 18.4 million conversations across 17 social platforms with a 92.7 social sentiment score and, for the first time, made Chipotle the top social brand, replacing Taco Bell, on the Restaurant Social Media Index Top 250 list. Chipotle continues pulling away from Taco Bell in RSMI’s top mobile brands rankings, indicating our mobile entertainment strategy is positively impacting the brand.