Shooting Stars: 12 Brands to Watch in 2014

Brand: Chipotle
Idea to Steal: Make mobile “advergaming” meaningful.

Chipotle showed its knack for gripping storytelling with its 2011 animated short film “Back to the Start,” which featured a poignant Willie Nelson cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist.” In September, the Mexican-food chain released its follow-up, “The Scarecrow,” this time featuring a Fiona Apple cover of “Pure Imagination.” The viral video has drawn more than 7 million views on YouTube, and while its anti-processed-foods message has drawn criticism, marketers shouldn’t lose sight of the true takeaway from this marketing campaign: the virtues of high-quality mobile “advergaming” when piggybacked on another major medium.

At the end of “The Scarecrow,” created by Moonbot Studios, Chipotle shows a teaser of its iOS mobile game Scarecrow and includes a call-to-action link enabling users to download the free iPhone and iPad app. Within its four days of availability, the game, which gives players control of the main character as he “sets out to provide an alternative to the unsustainable processed food from the factory” (according to Moonbot Studios’ description) was downloaded more than 250,000 times.

The iOS app isn’t just a cheap shill for burritos—it’s a high-quality game comprising a storyline, pleasing aesthetics and accelerometer-based gameplay. And like its video counterpart, the game doesn’t make any off-putting, overt pleas to spend more money at Chipotle’s restaurants, or like or follow their social media presences.

While developing a game to give a message another facet and a longer shelf life may seem onerous for some advertisers, it’s worth noting that mobile games have, on average, engagement rates that other types of advertising would salivate for. Advergames, especially those of the mobile variety, also gives brands a subtle-yet-sticky form of prolonged and more interactive engagement with their target audiences. It’s one thing to wow viewers with a video—it’s another to leverage that captured attention into a continued experience viewers can take with them in their pockets for repeated interactions. With mobile devices continuing their rapid spread across the globe, this type of creative cross-channel storytelling and entertainment seems primed to be more of the norm than the exception.—JH