Halloween 2021

Chipotle traditionally offers a discount or a free burrito to customers who visit the restaurant in a costume on Halloween.

In 2021, Chipotle ran a popular campaign on Roblox, which involved giving away free burritos IRL via digital codes on Roblox. They built an experience, which emulates this real-life Halloween tradition, and launched it during the Halloween season. Players could explore the virtual restaurant, order free virtual burritos inspired by real menu items and it also allowed users to dress up in unique costumes and receive discount coupons.

The first 30,000 people received free burritos at the restaurant from October 28th to 31st. Customers redeemed the code on the Chipotle app or website to have the burrito delivered to their home. This led to record-level app downloads, loyalty program sign-ups, and strong sales.

(Chipotle Burrito Maze)

The experience also compromised of a spooky Halloween themed maze, which offered free UGC assets if players were able navigate to the center.

The mix of freebie via virtual restaurants and fun element via the maze, made the Chipotle’s activation on Roblox a massive hit.

National Burrito Day 2022

After the instant success of the first campaign, Chipotle came up with another hit event in April. During National Burrito Day on April 6th, Chipotle organized a "Burrito Builder" campaign on their platform (Which is still live). The "Burrito Builder" game offered a 90s theme, potentially resonating with Gen Z's sense of nostalgia.

(Chipotle's announcement for burrito builder contest)

Players must prepare burritos for customers within a short time frame. The more burritos a player prepares, the more Burrito Bucks they earn. These bucks can be redeemed for real-world discounts on Chipotle orders.

(Burrito builder inside the chipotle experience)

The success of both the campaigns, not only proved the point that Roblox is much more than a kids game but also boosted sales and solidified Chipotle's reputation as a brand that embraces cutting-edge technology and understands the ever-evolving preferences of its customer base.

Despite all the success, Chipotle's experience has one particular outlier. They managed to get 25.6M lifetime visits and an average session length of 5.82 minutes, but their daily visits have dropped to an average of 4K per day. This is low, considering how well they started. Brand experiences need to incorporate game mechanics and regular updates to keep the players engaged for a long time.

Marketing Strategy of Chipotle’s Roblox activation

A funny thing that happened during this phase was that, Roblox crashed and went down for three straight days when the Chipotle campaign started and many speculated that the sudden rush of people wanting to try the Chipotle experience was the reason why Roblox crashed.

Were these speculation true or not, but Chipotle did converted this tragic event into a moment marketing techniques to build more hype the campaign.

Chipotle collaborated with popular YouTubers such as KreekCraft, Sketch, SharkBlox, and others to promote their campaign. Besides utilizing influencers, Chipotle also received significant promotion from their own social media accounts and those of Roblox.

(Keek Craft promoting the Burrito Builder Experience)

Apart from all these paid promotions, the biggest push that Chipotle received was because of their offering, FREE BURRITOS! Many subreddits, blogs, and Roblox players started talking about this campaign that could get them a free burrito.

Sub Reddits ↗️, Roblox Players ↗️, Nations Restaurant News ↗️

(Nation's restaurant news headline)

Headline from Nation’s Restaurant News, one of the most read publications by Restaurant owner in USA. Sharing the news about Chipotle’s Burrito Builder. All of this hype sent a significant amount of audience to the experience.

Why Roblox? Targeting Gen Z & Alpha

Chipotle's strategic choice of Roblox wasn't random. Gen Z & Alpha, the demographic born between 2000s and 2010s, is a crucial target audience for many businesses. This generation spends a significant amount of time in online gaming communities, and Roblox boasts millions of daily active users, with a large portion falling within the Gen Z, Alpha category.

By establishing a presence in Roblox, Chipotle effectively tapped into this market segment's digital habits and spending power. The interactive and engaging nature of the virtual restaurant resonated with Gen Z & Alpha, fostering brand awareness and positive associations. Players could explore a familiar environment, virtually build their favorite burritos, and participate in fun challenges, all within the context of the well-known Chipotle brand.

In an interview with Media Post, Tressie Lieberman, VP of digital marketing of the Newport Beach, California chain, explained why the brand is so eager to get to know Web 3.0 & Metaverse.

Question: The metaverse is famously ill-defined. How do you see it?

Lieberman: We think of it as a new community, almost like a social platform. So think about something like TikTok, where you can see millions of people talking about Chipotle. It's where they're spending their time. It's a place for entertainment, and there's an opportunity to create a connection. And we see the same thing happening in Roblox. It's very much a community, and we have fans there. So it's just a place people are connecting, although in a different way.

There are many layers. It could be through VR or more traditional gaming mechanics. But it's early days, and we'll see it evolve. The important thing is showing up in a way that feels authentic to that platform and community. It shouldn't feel like an ad or an experiment.

(Source)

The Burrito Builder’s Success

Here is the list of records Chipotle broke through its Roblox activation.

• Chipotle Burrito Builder on Roblox scored 1.1 million gameplays in less than 24 hours, with up to 27,000 people playing concurrently. And the 100,000 codes it offered got snapped up in 30 minutes.

• For Burrito Maze, they had 8.8 million gameplays and 5 million unique users.

• Largest digital ordering day of all time

• One of the top ten reward enrollment days of all time

• Trended on Twitter multiple times throughout the activation

• Most single-day app downloads ever

• Highest promo code redemption day of all time

• First restaurant in the Metaverse

• First brand on Roblox to enable players to exchange in-game currency (Burrito Bucks) into real-world items, Burrito

• First national restaurant to serve virtual food on Roblox

• First national restaurant to enable its loyalty members to exchange reward points for a Roblox gift card

• First time a brand created a menu item inspired by Roblox

(Source) (Source)

The Future of Brands and Gaming

Chipotle's activation in the Metaverse offers valuable lessons for businesses of all sizes. It highlights the power of innovative marketing strategies that target specific demographics through a new generation platform. Chipotle's success also demonstrates the importance of understanding your target audience and their evolving preferences. Plus, the vast potential of the Metaverse as a powerful tool for brand engagement and customer interaction.

Paving the path for other brands

Back in 2021, when Chipotle launched on Roblox, there was much skepticism around how a branded experience would perform on the Metaverse, especially considering the fact that Chipotle had integrated a Phygital (Physical + Digital) sales element into the game.

Their success provided the confidence the market (other brands) needed to activate their IPs on the Metaverse. We witnessed the expected results, after Chipotle’s activation, over 100 brands have launched on Roblox and there's no stopping.

Wherever attention goes, commerce follows, and currently platforms like Roblox and Fortnite are the epicenter of Gen Z and Alpha’s attention. The immersive nature of these platforms has been able to keep users hooked for hours, every day and this presents a golden opportunity for brands to get right in front of this generation of consumers and associate their identity with the respective brands.

This is where Metakey come into the play. We help brands build native experiences, identify the perfect game partners, establish communities, and plan custom UGC launches on Roblox. For example, we recently assisted the New Zealand national rugby team in launching a native experience on Roblox. Additionally, we launched our native experience, "Thor's Forge," on the platform. We are truly committed to our mission of helping brands engage with the younger generation.

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