Chipotle’s Brilliant and Subtle Advertisement – 5 Million Views On YouTube Alone

Chipotle Mexican Grill is a chain of restaurants in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany. It mainly offers burritos and tacos. Chipotle means "smoked chili", mainly used in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisines..

Chipotle recently produced a video that looks like it came from the Pixar studios. The ad has already been viewed 5 million times on YouTube,

The animation shows a scarecrow slaving away in a factory where fake meat is branded as “all natural”. The poor soul is plagued by mechanical crows representing evil or greed. After seeing all the horrors of the production process, he decides to grow his own food. He starts to sell his home frown food, addressing a market need.

Only at the end of the quite long video clip is the fast food chain credited (as well as the annoying song – I clicked "mute” to get rid of the ear piercing soundtrack).

According to the CMO of Chipotle Mexican Grill “We are on a mission. We want to change the way that people perceive fast food. Food producers paint a rosy picture of the industry. That’s only a front, as we want to show.” Chipotle’s previous video was viewed around 8 million times.

Chipotle claims not to use any meat products with hormones and antibiotics. The company also emphasizes that it purchases all its ingredients nearby, thus reducing its carbon footprint. However, a fast food chain is still a fast food chain. According to Erica Griedler, "Chipotle gets its avocados from Chili or Mexico if not locally available." She points out that a company can only be as green as its business model permits.

Still, the video clip is really cool:, as you can see below:

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A Cute and Creative Application of QR Code

Quick Response (QR) is a good tool for creative marketing. A QR code is a 2D barcode. It is similar to the well-known 1D product barcode, but a QR code can contain far more (and different kinds of) information. Reading a QR code is different from reading a standard barcode. Apart from scanning the code with a barcode reader, the QR code can also be read by using a free application on a smartphone.

QR codes can be linked to a company’s website, a YouTube video, a photo or any other hyperlink.

Marketers quickly saw the possibilities of the QR code and started using them for all kinds of B2C campaigns. A QR code is easy to create as an image. It can be printed on business cards, folders, flyers, products, and yes, even cookies.

The German company Qkies offers its consumers the ability to bake cookies with edible QR-codes. The company allows its customers to put their own personalized code on top of the cookies. One package consists of dough and 10 edible QR codes. (Yes, the buyer must bake the cookies first). On the website of Qkies, the “baker” can choose to which website the QR code should point to.

Qkies is the brainchild of a German food company and DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

Using animal symbols in marketing - not the cat's meow!

Using animals in marketing can be tricky. We all know strong brands that use animals: Puma, Jaguar and ING bank to name a few. But an animal may have different (and negative) connotations in export countries and other cultures.

In some countries, animals are considered to be a low life form. Using animals to promote eyeglasses is cute in the Western world, but a no-no in Thailand. (See also David A. Ricks "Blunders in International Business")

Based on Greek mythology, the owl in considered to be a symbol of wisdom (it was the favorite bird companion of Pallas Athena). Using an owl is quite common in Europe and the US (with the exception of hooters) for educational software and institutes. However, Asians consider the bird a symbol of stupidity. Not what you want in your marketing campaign!

Muslims consider dogs unclean animals. Any advertisement with cute dogs is therefore bound to fail. The same applies for showing women and men in one advertisement. Head and Shoulders adapted its advisement for the Arab-speaking market.

However, cats are extremely popular in Japan. Just think “Hello Kitty” or google one of the many YouTube clips.

Kate Edwards in Multilingual magazine’s August 2011 article, “Animal Symbolism” points out that (animal) symbols need to be managed carefully. “In an increasingly interconnected world, we have to remain diligent in choosing our symbols wisely with the utmost care.”

Before using animals in marketing campaigns, check the local culture. See what kinds of ad campaigns are popular. If a pet is conspicuously missing, there is a sound reason for it. Checking local proverbs is also a good way of checking for cultural sensitivities.

As with all marketing material: think global, but act local!

Corporate website 3.0 – Skittles brave jump into the marketing future

Skittles went where no candy maker has gone before – and launched a corporate 3.0 website.

Skittles are candy products, produced by Mars, Inc., and part of the Wrigley product line.

Mars spokesman Ryan Bowling told the Wall Street Journal, that the site was redesigned to better connect with its core teenage audience, which spends a lot of time using social media.

"The teen audience relies heavily on their peers for advice on products. This is a unique, unexpected way to engage and to be a part of the conversation."

How does this site work? The “homepage” of Skittles is a small banner that fixes itself on the top left of your screen. No matter which tab you click, the URLs remain www.skittles.com/xxx,
The tabs link to customer-generated content (Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter)

1. “Home” and “Products” link to the Wikipedia page with the product description

2. “Media” has two components: “Videos” that links to YouTube and “Pics” that links to Flickr

3. “Chatter” brings you to the Twitter page

4. “Friends” links you to a Facebook page

5. “Contact” is the only tab that connects to a standard corporate website – the contact form on the Wrigley website

6. “Other Gobbledygook” will take you to the copyright notice and legal disclaimer

7. The middle part is a dynamic banner. Once you click for more information, a new window opens with a dedicated website ( e.g., http://www.havemorefunds.com/)

It is the first time that I came across such a website 3.0 of a reigning consumer brand. Instead of Skittles reaching out to its customers, it allows them to communicate directly and in a highly visible way. There are some possible pitfalls and dangers though......

Does the website reach the target demographics?
To enter the site, you must first confirm that you are over 18. (Before able to login, you get the message: “Hold your horses. Before you can check out Skittles.com, you’ve gotta tell us your age. So spill it”. Aren’t most Skittles-consumers younger?

Is Twitter a good choice?
According to Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, there are no children on Twitter - the majority of application-users are between the ages of 18-49 years of age. Is Mars aiming for the parents of their child consumers or for a whole new demographic?

How are negative comments handled?
Is there a staff that monitors content and communications and that can handle damage control?

How does Skittles/Mars protect themselves and their customers from malware and Web 2.0 threats?
It is quite easy for cybercrooks to inject malicious code in any of the pages. (Michael Gray provides some great advise on his SEO blog)

What about SEO?
The site consists of an iframe with almost no independent content. Technically, Facebook, Twitter or Wikipedia are not visited, but the Skittles’ website pulls the content for you into an iframe.

How will it affect the overall Mars brand?
Did the the flood of obscene, racist, and otherwise tasteless tweets have an impact?

The website was launched in March 2009 and designed by agency.com.
According to agency’s executive director Chad Stoller: “It is a very bold campaign in the sense that they are letting consumers speak on behalf of the brand."

My personal take: I love the fact that Skittles embraced Web 3.0 and is brave enough to relinquish control. But it might too much unchartered territory with unpredictable and even uncontrollable results. I hope that Skittles will tell us how they fared – up till now, there have been no announcements or reactions from Mars or the agency. No matter what, I predict that this one will make it many MBA course materials and marketing handbooks.

In the mean time, all I can say is: chapeau!