Chipotle took a 21-year old IRL Halloween tradition and modernized it for Gen Z with a virtual event on Roblox. Halloween went from a fading brand tradition to Chipotle’s most talked about social moment of the year.

As a result of the activation, Chipotle landed on the list of top 10 most searched terms on Google and trended twice on Twitter. The supporting social, influencer, and PR campaign helped the brand reach all new audiences and breathe new life into a fan favorite. And it marked the first time a virtual action in the metaverse resulted in a physical item

Every Halloween since 2000, Chipotle fans look forward to the brand’s annual Boorito tradition. The historically IRL event, where customers were invited to come to the restaurant in costume to receive a discount, was beloved by millenials. But over the years, and especially in the wake of COVID, things changed. Most of Gen Z didn’t know what Boorito was. Chipotle needed a comeback for a new generation–and so decided to reimagine it for Gen Z.

With traditional social channels feeling too, well, traditional, Chipotle saw Boorito as the perfect opportunity to innovate. Roblox–an emerging virtual platform–gave the brand access to a new and global community. With Boorito, Chipotle would establish itself on the platform with a simple, fun experience that was dynamic and could be adapted down the line.

Chipotle entered the metaverse with its very own spooky experience in Roblox, and invited its biggest fans to join in.

To connect its new take on Boorito to the real-life tradition, the brand built out a detailed virtual version of one of its restaurants, perfectly replicated from architectural renderings. And then they designed a maze filled with fresh virtual ingredients mirroring those Chipotle actually serves. Users were invited to visit the restaurant in virtual costumes to receive a code they could redeem at the register in the virtual restaurant for a free burrito in real life. Then they could race through the Boorito Maze to collect additional virtual prizes.

It was everything millennials loved about the old tradition in a totally new space made for Gen Z.

Chipotle’s Gen Z target audience didn’t know about Boorito, but loved Roblox. With roughly 50M daily active users and 67% of the platform’s users under the age of 16, Roblox was the perfect place to flex as an early brand adapter while also creating an experience with a scale robust enough to expand Chipotle’s fandom.

By meeting the young and passionate Roblox community where they were, doing the research, and adopting their language, Chipotle was able to reach a younger generation in a way that felt both relevant and approachable.

With Boorito on Roblox, Chipotle created a strategy centered on bringing out the best parts of its existing traditions and customizing them completely to the language of the platform and the community. It would be the first time a virtual action in the metaverse resulted in a physical item in real life: a Chipotle burrito.

To help fuel the pre-launch excitement, Chipotle worked with influencers known for leaking Roblox news to drive buzz and spread the word. They were invited into the experience early to create bespoke first-person YouTube videos about how the game worked, which were synched to go live on launch day. Then, two days before the experience was playable to the public, Chipotle announced it to the masses, giving press and fans time to spread the word.

Within three minutes of Chipotle’s Roblox Boorito launch, hundreds of thousands of users flooded the virtual restaurant, and Roblox crashed. The news spawned a viral rumor that Chipotle’s Boorito experience caused a global outage on the platform. Chipotle played into it with fun social posts that slyly made the connection. Then, when Roblox was up and running again, Chipotle organized a make-good for fans by reopening its virtual restaurant and giving out more burritos.

Chipotle’s Boorito experience on Roblox reached every corner of the internet. It was visited over 8M times by players and resulted in over 3.5M+ unique plays.

Boorito on Roblox led to the brand's highest digital sales, promo code redemptions, mobile orders, and single-day downloads of the Chipotle app, of all time. It was one of the top 10 best Chipotle Rewards enrollment days ever. Boorito became Chipotle’s most talked about social moment of the year, earning 4.6+ billion PR impressions and 50k+ social mentions–the highest ever for the brand. Chipotle was the 10th most searched term on Google that Halloween and trended on Twitter twice from 10/28-10/31.

While reaching Gen Z where they are, Chipotle became a leader in the metaverse–as the first restaurant brand to open a virtual location on Roblox, and marking the first time taking an action inside a Roblox experience resulted in a real life reward.