How Chipotle cut through the inbox clutter

Context

Chipotle uses its Chipotle Rewards Loyalty Program to engage with its fans and share offers based on order history and content preferences. But when it comes to emails, it’s hard to get people to pay the slightest bit of interest.

Objectives

• Increase open rates and click rates for Chipotle emails
• Deliver incremental value from customers who received an email during the campaign

Strategy

Starting with the insight that the brand's Chipotle Rewards Loyalty Program members are particularly proud of their 'unique' burrito order, Chipotle created the Chipotle Doppelgänger campaign, to show people that however one-of-a-kind they think their Chipotle order is, there is someone else out there ordering the Exact. Same. Thing.

Creative

Using Chipotle’s nationwide transactional data, the brand worked out when two people ordered the exact same burriot within two minutes of each other at different restaurants and sent both customers a Chipotle Doppelgänger email highlighting the strange serendipity.

The email obviously didn’t contain any personally identifiable information, just the time and date of the Doppelgänger match, the restaurant where the order was placed, and a listing of the customised ingredients. The orders had to match eight or more ‘customisations’ – so a normal chicken burrito with white rice wouldn't create a Doppelgänger match. But even without the PII, people were quickly posting on social media, trying to find their burrito bestie with the same taste as them.

Results

In just the first four weeks, the brand sent over 450,000 Doppelgänger emails, with the open rate 44% above benchmark, while the click rate for the triggered emails was 176% above benchmark. The people who received the emails delivered $4.8m in revenue. The campaign won Gold in Creative Data at the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity 2023.