Chipotle’s Buy the Dip game will give away $200K in crypto

Dive card:

• Chipotle Mexican Grill is celebrating National Avocado Day (July 31) by launching a limited-time stock market simulation game, “Buy the Dip,” that will give away $200,000 in various cryptocurrencies to players, according to a press release.
• Players can access the game online from 10am to 6pm PT daily starting today (July 25th) through July 31st using their Chipotle Rewards account. To play, users watch a crypto line chart move and must “buy the dip” for a chance to win crypto or a 1-cent guacamole or queso.
• Participants get three games per day and more than 500 players will win crypto while the game is live. The campaign represents a growing effort by brands to market to consumers in new ways following the rise of Web3 and digital currencies.

Diving Insights:

Chipotle has long used current trends to drive marketing efforts and boost loyalty program members, from hidden keywords in TV ads to burrito-rolling Roblox activations, and its latest effort is no different. Due to the hype surrounding digital currency, the restaurant taps into a large population of crypto fans and also reaches out to the gaming community with the creation of an online simulator. The effort also promotes the ability for customers to use cryptocurrency as payment at Chipotle as part of a partnership with cryptocurrency payment company Flex.

The purpose of the game is for players to watch a fictional crypto tracker move through highs and lows to “buy the dip”, or invest when the asset price drops in anticipation that it will eventually rise again. The play appears to refer to the swings in the volatile crypto market, which has bottomed out and lost $2 trillion in value since a rally last year. Still, with a market capitalization of $1.01 trillion as of press time, marketing around crypto represents a way to engage with the digital-first consumers that has proven vital to the brand.

“We want to build the next generation of Chipotle fandom by connecting with the Web3 community,” Chipotle CMO Chris Brandt said in the press release.

Every day from July 25th to July 30th, Chipotle will be giving away $10,000 worth of Bitcoin, $5,000 worth of Ethereum, $1,250 worth of Solana, and $3,000 each of Avalanche and Dogecoin. On 31 July, premiums will increase across several of the currencies; Bitcoin’s total reward will jump to $35,000, divided among six players. Winners have 15 seconds to claim their prize or try again to win something else.

This isn’t the first time Chipotle has used crypto as a marketing tactic. In March 2021, the chain announced it would give away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in bitcoin while challenging customers to guess a six-digit password to unlock the “Burritos or Bitcoin” microsite. Others have also embraced the concept, including Burger King, which partnered with Robinhood to give away Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. In March 2022, Shake Shack announced that it would offer cryptocurrency rewards to those who pay for their orders using the Cash App.

Using crypto to entice consumers to join the Chipotle Rewards loyalty program, which reached 28 million US subscribers since its creation in 2019, gives the restaurant another chance to collect valuable first-party data as the end of third-party cookies nears. The acceptance of cryptocurrency in Chipotle locations comes as many begin to explore the future of crypto as a primary payment method in the face of a growing digital-first landscape.