Leveraging Creators to Build Buzz for Chipotle Catering

Chipotle Mexican Grill, a fast-casual restaurant brand cultivating a better world by serving responsibly-sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, is on a mission to make its real food more convenient. To do so, they launched a catering offering ahead of the holidays, a time when office parties and family gatherings create a need to easily feed large groups.

‍

Client
Services
Communications Strategy & Planning
Media Relations & Influencer Marketing
Industry
Multi-Unit Restaurants
Awards
2019 Gold Pick Winner

CHallenge

Chipotle’s pre-pandemic offering provided customers with several benefits, including menu item customization, the ability to feed up to 200 people, and only a 24-hour notice required to place a catering order. To help raise awareness and drive sales, Linhart PR needed to highlight these benefits and keep Chipotle top of mind as people decided on holiday catering solutions.

‍

Solution

Linhart PR researched, planned and executed a creator program, working with 27 creators across 16 target markets who met Chipotle’s criteria: Chipotle fans, sizable reach and solid engagement, a history of hosting giveaways, and a pattern of posting about local events and offerings.

 

Once the partners were selected and on board, Linhart PR developed two distinct strategies to spread the word about and drive trial of Chipotle’s new catering option via the influencers:  

  • Include key catering messages — like the ability to customize your meal with proteins, salsas and other add-ons, just like you would at Chipotle – and images of the catering spread, plus tag Chipotle to promote the partnership.
  • Share two catering-for-20 gift cards per creator; one for the creator to try and share about the catering and one to use in a follower giveaway to drive trial. Creators posted with searchable hashtags like #chipotle, #chipotlecatering and #tacotuesday.

‍

Results

Linhart PR generated substantial buzz for Chipotle catering with 71 creator posts, reaching more than 2 million consumers in 16 priority markets. Specifically, Linhart PR secured:  

>>71 posts that shared key benefits of Chipotle catering — like how Chipotle’s spread of meats, beans and toppings is so much better than a big box of store-bought potato salad — and included either marketing photos provided by Linhart PR or photos of an actual catering spread

  • 22 of the 27 creators posted about Chipotle catering more than once and/or on more than one channel

>>45 posts highlighting the use of catering-for-20 cards for a creator-hosted, Chipotle-catered party

>>25 posts with a catering-for-20 card giveaway to encourage trial

‍

Learn more about
Partner With Linhart PR

More Work

Subscribe for company news and industry updates

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Our Global Reach
© 2019 Linhart PR All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy