Chipotle's Social Media Excellence?

 

Image provided by CNBC

        For those who don't know, Chipotle is considered a fast food styled Mexican restaurant. Built similar to the style of Subway, Chipotle acts as a "create your own" meal styled restaurant. Chipotle was founded in 1993 in Denver, Colorado by Steve Ellis. With Chipotle being around for so long they would need to find a way to continuously compete with the food industry. Chipotle does use the typical billboard ads and flyer styled advertising in cities they are located, but Chipotle looked to improve their marketing to a new level. 

Chipotle Improves Marketing: 

        With the world rapidly evolving through technology and social media use, Chipotle looked to better advertise to their markets. With that being said, Chipotle was one of the first companies ever to take their advertising to the new app of the time, TikTok. Chipotle made their first initial move to TikTok through a hashtag campaign titled "#ChipotleLidFlip". This new hashtag campaign drove a massive influx in viewership and attention to the younger generations. The video attached to the new hashtag that Chipotle posted generated over 240 million views. But, Chipotle did not stop there, they went on to post another hashtag trend titled "#GuacDance". Guac dance blew Chipotles first hashtag out of the water by generating a whopping 430 million views in only six days of being released. 

        Chipotle created a new type of advertising by their campaign on TikTok. TikTok allowed Chipotle to allow their customers to have a fun and creative way of partaking in social media trends tied to their favorite food place while also creating advertising to those who were not familiar with their brand. Not only did Chipotle run an ad campaign but it also allowed for good personal relations and brand image building along the way. With Chipotle being the first business to really take their ads and marketing to TikTok it changed the course of social media marketing for all businesses. Chipotle took social media marketing by storm by generating a digital sales growth of 88%, and a sales increase of 14.8% (up to 1.2 billion dollar increase) all from their original Tiktok increase. 

        

        With the business boom from Tiktok it moved Chipotle to have more emphasis on their social media presence crossed other platforms as well. Chipotle utilizes Instagram really well to generate marketing ads as well as brand imaging. Chipotle has 1.2 million followers on Instagram and generates one post a day. On Instagram Chipotle post funny, relatable pictures/videos that highlights their food and business while allowing followers to comment their opinions and feel incorporated with the business. EXAMPLE: 

Image acquired from Chipotle's Instagram

        The instagram post that Chipotle puts out allows for an effective way to push ad campaigns while also allowing for them to show their brand/beliefs. Reading an article by Alicia Kelso titled "How Chipotle keeps pace with ‘cultural shifts’ for its social media campaigns" she notes having an interview with the social media director for Chipotle. In the interview the social media director, Candice Beck, states that "We highly value shares, understanding that for a share, the content resonated with someone so much so that they told another person about it," this shows the social media dedication that Chipotle looks to utilize when posting on their accounts. 

Opinion on Social Media Usage: 

        Reading the article about Chipotle utilizing Tiktok, and being one of the first, drew me by surprising because I would not expect a food business styled like Chipotle to be the first ads around the app. But, after reading the type of campaigns Chipotle was doing, I actually remembered seeing these ads when they first came out. The ads and hashtags were super memorable and everyone was utilizing them in their post. This allowed Chipotle to generate a TON of marketing and ad viewership without spending loads of money on commercials and advertisements. 

        I actually follow Chipotle on my social media accounts, being a fan of their food I like to see any updates of foods or new items being released. I find my information and updates coming a lot more from social media post of different companies more times that I see from commercials or ads outside social media. Anytime I see a "discount ad" or "new product ad" I also send it to friends and family to show them the information incase they don't see it. Social media allows for a mass send out and a "word of mouth" communication advertisement. I believe as a brand it is super beneficial to utilize social media to drive customer retention and involvement to generate more views and brand likeness/image.  

Additional Sites Used: 

30 Brands with excellent social media strategies by Nikki Gilliland