Doppelganger Detected: Unravel the secrets behind the successful campaign of this iconic restaurant!

From the desk of Miles Everson: Hi, everyone! Do you know why guerrilla marketing holds a special place in my heart? It’s because this strategy encourages the use of out-of-the-box thinking. Guerrilla marketing campaigns provide opportunities for marketers to impress the public, foster interaction, and evoke genuine, organic reactions. Today, I will highlight an example of a guerrilla marketing campaign that generated lots of buzz for a brand. Continue reading to learn more about this brand’s unconventional take on an email marketing campaign!

Doppelganger Detected: Unravel the secrets behind the successful campaign of this iconic restaurant! Recently, personalization has emerged as a key trend in the fast food industry as it allows people to tailor their orders based on their specific preferences.  … and in terms of personalization, one restaurant stands out: Chipotle! Chipotle is an international chain of fast casual restaurants known for providing customers with customizable menu items made from fresh ingredients. With the fast food chain’s customizable menu, most of its customers put great efforts into customizing their orders.  Chipotle saw this as an opportunity to celebrate its customers’ creativity in crafting their orders. So, the brand developed a personalized guerrilla marketing campaign called… The “Doppelgänger” Email Campaign!   Chipotle, in collaboration with the advertising agency, GALE, came up with this digital guerrilla marketing campaign to connect with its customers and recognize their efforts in creating unique order combinations.  Aside from this, the fast food chain also wanted to generate buzz for its brand in a memorable and meaningful way. Here’s how the campaign played out:  An email was sent when two people ordered the same menu item. To be qualified as a Chipotle doppelgänger, both orders must share at least eight menu items in common.  Unlike regular promotional emails, the doppelgänger email was designed to look like an alert message to intrigue customers, evoking a sense of urgency for them to respond and act on the call-to-action (CTA). The email only contains the time and the cities where the orders were made, and the specific ingredients.  This email campaign was designed to send emails to customers who spent a considerable amount of time customizing their orders.  Subscribers who received this email were rewarded with a rare “Doppelgänger” digital badge. Let’s take a look at the results of this ingenious marketing campaign: The email marketing campaign generated over USD 4.8 million revenue six weeks after its launch. Over 175 million Chipotle fans posted about the campaign on TikTok, generating buzz for the restaurant chain. Through the intriguing email headers, the brand successfully sent out over 466,000 Doppelgänger emails. Chipotle managed to increase its email open rate by 44%. Additionally, the email campaign enjoyed a click rate of 176% above the industry benchmark. Beyond driving these impressive results, the guerrilla marketing campaign also bagged several awards: 2023 Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity Gold Data-Driven Targeting The Webby Awards People’s Voice Award for best use of Data Driven Media 2024 The One Show Awards Bronze Pencil Creative use of data Hats off to GALE and Chipotle for achieving these impressive results! — Chipotle’s successful guerrilla marketing campaign highlights the importance of creativity and personalization in fostering consumer engagement.  By putting a creative twist on what it’s best known for, Chipotle was able to interact with its customers in a playful, creative, and meaningful way. So, the next time you plan your guerrilla marketing campaign, find out what your customers like the most about your brand.  Then, leverage it to pull off something unconventional and unexpected! Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. EXCITING NEWS AHEAD The world of work has shifted, and there’s no going back. The barriers to entry have never been lower for talented professionals to work independently, and today’s massive external workforce is hardly a pandemic-produced fad. Business owners can only survive in the new work landscape by partnering with this deep talent pool. With decades of experience in both small-business entrepreneurship and executive management at PwC, I truly believe that the future of work is independent. With that, I’m happy to share with you that my book, co-authored with Walter Scott Lamb, is now available for pre-order on Amazon! Free Birds Revolution: The Future of Work & The Independent Mind This is an essential read for both independent professionals and corporate executives. Here, we provide educational and practical guides to unpack the ever-growing workforce and offer you crucial ways to become a client of choice. Click on the link above to pre-order your copy. Let this book help you future-proof your career and organization in the new world of work.     Stay tuned for next Thursday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing! Do you want to know how this restaurant used fried chicken to transform stress into comfort? See it in next week’s article!