Chipotle Launches "My Chipotle” Advertising Campaign Tied to Menu Variety

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) (NYSE: CMG.B), the national chain of burrito restaurants known for serving Food With Integrity, has launched a comprehensive advertising campaign to increase awareness of the 60,000-plus various food combinations available on its menu. The new campaign, called "My Chipotle,” seeks to harness the creativity of Chipotle’s dedicated fan base and engage them via an online call for videos and original content.

Chipotle’s menu offerings, made with the best-tasting sustainably raised, premium quality ingredients, including naturally raised meat, rBGH-free dairy and local and organic produce, allow customers to create thousands of delicious burrito, taco and salad combinations. Because customers choose exactly what goes into their individual order, they can tailor what they eat to meet any taste or dietary preferences, making Chipotle appeal to a broad customer base. The campaign calls attention to the varied options available at Chipotle and demonstrates how meals in the restaurant can be personalized by and for each customer.

"With this campaign, it is our intention to harness the power of our most loyal fans,” said Mark Crumpacker, chief marketing officer of Chipotle. "We want them to be a part of the process because we know they’re consistently expressing themselves through their menu choices. By encouraging them to tell us why they eat what they do, we think they’ll spread the word and encourage others to come in and give Chipotle a try as well.”

Chipotle’s restaurant model emphasizes doing just a few things so it can do them better than anyone else. This thinking is evident in Chipotle’s Food With Integrity philosophy, which has the company selecting ingredients from more sustainable sources whenever possible. Chipotle already serves more naturally raised meat (from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormones and fed a pure vegetarian diet) than any other restaurant in the world, uses locally grown produce when seasonably available, serves only cheese and sour cream made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH and uses a growing percentage or organically grown beans.

"The efficiency of our restaurant operations has always been one of our greatest strengths,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. "Demonstrating greater variety will help our customers better understand the universe of choices, but without creating the operational challenges that often come with a whole new menu or limited time offers.”

Consumers Need "Variety” Reminder

The "My Chipotle” campaign is based on extensive research surrounding customer preferences which found that many customers were ordering the same thing every time they visited Chipotle. The research suggested that the ordering experience was confusing, even intimidating, to new customers and that, coupled with a perceived lack of choice, set many customers into a routine where they order the same thing on every visit. The new campaign better demonstrates the universe of menu combinations available at Chipotle for both existing customers and potential new ones.

The My Chipotle campaign was created by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, a full-service marketing communications agency based in Sausalito, Calif.

"Chipotle is a ‘passion brand,’ with dedicated brand ambassadors in every corner of the country,” said Mike Shine, co-founder and executive creative director of BSSP. "Chipotle has hundreds of unofficial fan groups on Facebook, posts funny fan photos on their website and also has a number of photos on Flickr taken by dedicated customers. So the most effective way to spread our message of variety is to do it through the people that already know about Chipotle’s unique menu and love it. We look forward to unleashing even more creativity from the passionate masses.”

The "My Chipotle” campaign is now appearing online, in print, on the radio and in out-of-home advertising (billboards, bus shelters and taxi tops) in several cities around the country, including Sacramento, Denver, Dallas, Chicago and Cincinnati. It includes a dedicated website, mychipotle.com, that allows consumers to send content to Chipotle and view selected content submitted by other users. Chipotle will add new functions to the site as additional content is added, allowing users to share content using social media applications, rate submissions and sort content to find favorites. The best entries may be used as part of the campaign.

About Chipotle

Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO, started Chipotle with the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical fast food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere. Through our vision of Food with Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food not only from using fresh ingredients, but ingredients that are sustainably grown and naturally raised with respect for the animals, the land and the farmers who produce the food. Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 860 restaurants. For more information, visit chipotle.com.

About Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners

BSSP (bssp.com) is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Sausalito, Calif. The agency provides services in advertising, online marketing and web development, brand identity and design, and strategic brand consulting.

One of the largest independent agencies on the West Coast, BSSP is recognized for its ability to provide highly creative, fully accountable marketing solutions to a broad array of marketers including priceline.com, LucasArts, MINI Cooper, Epson, Greyhound, Take Care Health Systems and RadioShack. It is a member of Worldwide Partners, Inc. the world’s largest, privately held, owner-operated advertising and marketing services networks, made up of 100 agencies in 49 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America.

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