It is very interesting, to me at least, and possibly the few million folks who have taken the time to look at it. I think it is possibly interesting for reasons that are not so obvious.
Sure, the message of locally sourced, more organic, fresh and healthy, less chemicals and preservatives resonates. It is a good story, and most of us want to be healthier and want our kids to be healthier. And sure the viral nature of the video and how Chipotle used a relatively innovative approach to marketing is very interesting. Really, at the end of the day, Chipotle wants to bring more people into their stores. They did not produce this video and the game and the other sort of subversive content to make the world a better place, they want to and need to get butts in seats and sell burritos, right?
What has my attention here is telling a bigger, broader story. Not telling people how great Chipotle is (which it is IMHO), barely mentioning the brand at all, barely mentioning even the market place Chipotle plays in is very purposeful. It is tapping the new world order of marketing. It is using the social media reality to spread a bigger story. It is touching more and more and more people with the story and they all will remember Chipotle. The next time they drive past a Chipotle they will think "hey, I haven't been there in a while. I think I'll stop in". At least that is the goal.
This is not intended to be cynical in anyway. I think telling a bigger, broader story can help an organization keep focused on core values, mission and vision.
The company that currently employs me is a great company. Some incredible technologies and technical leadership that has real vision. I joined this company to be a part of that technical vision and to idealistically help form that vision and be a part of its evolution. At the end of the day we sell widgets. We talk often of typical case studies, like companies that sell refrigerators. The don't sell refrigerators, they sell cold beer. Of course the example above abstracts this even further.
How many software companies, regardless of what they actually have, sell Security? It was the term that every Independent Software Vendor marketing team wanted to get into the message. "We make you more secure!".
Today it is Cloud! ISVs around the world are rapidly trying to wrap a message around Cloud, whatever that means. Cloud is not simple, it has lots of moving parts. The goal is to abstract some of the complexity and allow organizations to focus on what to deliver instead of the fabric. Some concepts are worked out in this post on Cloud definitions.
The above two examples are jaded. They are typical marketing of a message because people are searching for those specific messages. Not because it is a belief that is where a message fits.
Finding the broad message, what is important to your company, what makes your company tick, aligning that with something that is important to an incredibly broad audience is the challenge. Doing so with integrity and honesty without being contrived is the key to success.
We make the complex simple. We help IT people spend more time with the families, we save marriages <g>. Drawing a picture of a world that has been dominated by large mega companies. Showing how those companies continue to build larger and larger complex solutions is important. It is that legacy that we fight against. These large companies selling super complex solutions are just trying to move themselves forward. They need to have customers who buy their story. And for most IT people their world is so confusing they don't know where to look. It can be easier, it can be simpler, it can be more cost effective and you don't have to give up functionality or scenarios. You just need to embrace the vision of solving complex problems simply. And stop buying into the story that the only way to solve complex problems is to utilize complex solutions. Just not true.
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them." Albert Einstein
