Chipotle Mexican Grill called timeout on a Super Bowl TV spot
Day One won Most Effective Use of Mobile at The Drum Awards for the Digital Industries 2020 with its Superbowl TikTok campaign for Chipotle Mexican Grill. Here, the team explains the out-of-the-box thinking that led to this spicy and successful campaign.
The challenge
Every year, Super Bowl ads get bigger, louder and more expensive as viewership of the event nears almost 100 million people. With brands scrambling to outdo one another during the biggest advertising night of the year, in 2019, Chipotle decided to do their own thing and call a timeout on traditional advertising.
Key objectives:
- Win over the Super Bowl conversation without an ad on TV.
- Reach Gen Z and Millennial targets.
- Drive digital delivery sales during and around the game.
The strategy
Day One skipped the traditional TV ad and got 12 of the biggest TikTok influencers, with a combined 95 million followers, to create their own Super Bowl ads on TikTok. They then licensed the number one song on TikTok, Justin Bieber’s new hit single Yummy.
The campaign
Starting at kickoff the team coordinated with each of our 12 influencers in real time to post during each of the game’s timeouts. When a timeout got called on the field and other brands were on TV, Chipotle owned the second screen. Then Justin made us all #Beliebers by sharing the campaign to his quarter billion followers on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. (Day One: "We didn’t even ask him to do that.")
The results
The campaign hit over 50M TikTok views and earned 10M engagements. Most importantly, by engaging the consumer where they are with a creative and relevant message, it saw 75% annual lift in delivery sales on Chipotle’s biggest food delivery night of the year - all without spending a single dollar on TV.
“Day One Agency has been a game changing partner. They are on the edge of culture and obsessed with the customer. They were able to find a simple cultural hook that enabled Chipotle to own the delivery conversation and drive big results during a key event. It’s a joy to work with such a quick and collaborative team.” - Tressie Lieberman, vice president, digital marketing and off-premise, Chipotle
This project was a winner at The Drum Awards for the Digital Industries in 2020. To find out which competitions in The Drum Awards are currently open for entries, click here.
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