Observatory, Nexus Studios, and Johnny Kelly's heartwarming stop-motion short brings sustainable farming back to the forefront for Chipotle.

// BACKGROUND //

Ten years ago, Chipotle premiered the award-winning stop-motion film "Back to the Start." The film told the story of a farmer's embrace–and subsequent rejection–of "factory" farming. The film's soundtrack featured an original rendition of Coldplay's "The Scientist" by Country Music legend and friend to farmers Willie Nelson. "Back to the Start" expressed Chipotle's industry-leading commitment to sourcing its produce and protein from family farms.

However, in the decade since, thousands of family farms have fallen into disrepair or disappeared entirely because the children of aging farmers reject farm life for city life.

In "A Future Begins," Chipotle revisits the same farm to share the inspiring story of how the next generation can employ modern, sustainable farming practices to ensure the survival of family farms.

The stop-motion film is set to Grammy-winning Country Music superstar (and friend to Willie Nelson and family farmers) Kacey Musgraves' reimagination of Coldplay's "Fix You."

// EXECUTION //

"A Future Begins" launched with a YouTube masthead more akin to a feature film than an ad, and the release of the original reimagination of "Fix You" on Spotify, Apple, and more.

On TV, the film ran as a full-length short film, not as an ad, to 77million households on Thanksgiving – a major American holiday celebrating a bountiful harvest. Moreover, the film premiered on a #1 rated NFL Game in a first-of-its-kind 2:20 break and ran by itself with no surrounding ads.

A series of documentary shorts launched on farmers.Chipotle.com with real stories that inspired "A Future Begins."

Simultaneously, we launched an exclusive apparel collaboration with legendary farm and work-wear maker Carhartt.

Retail, Digital, and Social extensions included a mini-movie poster on 5 Million Chipotle bags with a QR code to auto-play the film and connect to exclusive making-of-the-film and song. Fans loved a record-smashing Snapchat lens.

// OUTCOME //

"A Future Begins" far-exceeded the success of its predecessor on engagement, efficient reach, and more – and garnered the highest social engagement of any piece of Chipotle brand content or advertising in company history, even outperforming Chipotle's 2020 Super Bowl ad despite a far-smaller paid media buy, also making it the most efficient brand content or ad in Chipotle history.

HIGHLIGHTS:

– 50MM+ social with 11MM+ YouTube and 27MM+ TikTok.
– Best-ever organic-to-paid ratio and lowest-ever CPV (Cost-Per-View)
– 4.5 MM+ Organic (unpaid, un-promoted) Spotify streams of Kacey Musgraves' "Fix You"
– 32.8MM+ impressions on Snapchat, 21s average interaction (surpassing–Snapchat's lens benchmark of 14-16s), top 20 Lenses of 2021
– PR: 484 stories with 357MM+ earned media impressions
– 58% increase in relative search
– Best YouTube completion rates of any Chipotle content ever
– 13K+ new signatures on the national petition for the 2023 Farm Bill
– 5MM bags with mini-poster and QR Code achieved record-setting engagement