Chipotle Doppelgänger is an email campaign that uses real-time purchase data to send a unique email to specific individuals if they order the exact same menu items as someone else at the exact same moment.

The core concept and data integration that power this campaign make it perfectly suited for a direct channel like email — each communication was personally addressed and each had a clear call to action. In fact, it would be impossible to bring it to life any way other than direct one-to-one communication.

According to prevailing research, most of us receive about 150 emails a day, and we delete about half without even reading them.

Chipotle’s objective with each member communication in our Loyalty program is to break through the most cluttered media environment in the world — the email inbox.

To help get it done, we consistently leverage what we know about our members' content preferences and order histories to deliver relevant communications that not only drive purchases, but also build the Chipotle brand.

Chipotle is a Mexican/American restaurant company cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically cooked real food with wholesome ingredients..

The menu has only 53 ingredients ranging from rice to black beans to green peppers — but the ability to choose over 4 million possible order combinations means Chipotle has one of the most customizable menus in the world.

Most people who carefully build their burrito or bowl think their order is unique, but we have access to purchase data from across the country and know that’s not true. Even the most peculiar orders are chosen by at least two people, and we wanted to prove it.

The definition of doppelgänger is “a ghostly double,” which feels like the perfect description of someone who orders the exact burrito as you, at the exact same time.

Part of the role of the Chipotle Rewards Loyalty Program is to directly engage its biggest fans — and one thing we know about them is they take great pride in the specificity of their orders. It’s not uncommon to hear an order that sounds like this…

“I want a chicken burrito with brown rice, half black beans and half pinto beans, extra cheese, extra sour cream, just a half scoop of guacamole, and extra spicy tomatillo sauce.”

So, Chipotle Doppelgänger was designed to send direct communications to the fans who put the most effort into customizing their orders. We wanted to reward these superfans with truly personalized communications to deepen their loyalty and hopefully spark some sharing on their own social platforms.

As the agency that manages Chipotle’s Rewards Loyalty Program, we have access to nationwide transactional data.

If two people ordered the exact same thing within two minutes of each other at different restaurants, both customers received a Chipotle Doppelgänger email. It’s important to note the orders had to match eight or more menu “customizations.” This meant a typical chicken burrito with white rice didn’t create a Doppelgänger match. The two orders had to be the same down to the last detail - EXTRA cheese, EXTRA salsa, queso ON THE SIDE...

The email was designed to look more like a system alert than a slick marketing email - entirely black and white with lots of keyboard symbols and stark language.

The email doesn’t contain any personally identifiable information, just the time and date of the Doppelgänger match, the restaurant where the order was placed, and a listing of the customized ingredients.

The campaign went live at the end of March 2023.

In just the first four weeks:

We sent about 466,000 Doppelgänger emails.

The open rate was 44% above benchmark.

The click rate for the triggered emails was 176% above benchmark.

The people who received the emails delivered $4.8 million in revenue.

Sometimes data-driven targeting is focused on a specific audience segment or even a specific geography. But in the case of Chipotle Doppelgänger, the data helped us target exactly two people at a time — two people who placed the exact same food order at the exact same time in different cities.

The order had to match at least eight specific “customizations.” So, for example, both orders had to have EXTRA cheese, LIGHT hot sauce, HALF AND HALF beans, BROWN rice, etc. Our team was able to scan millions of orders in near real time to find these Doppelgänger orders and then trigger emails to those two specific people. On any given day, there are between 1,500 and 2,000 Doppelgänger orders, so that triggers 3,000-4,000 individual emails.

Each email tells the customer which Chipotle restaurant their Doppelgänger ordered at, the specific time the order was placed, and lists out the ingredients.

Chipotle is a beloved brand in the US, Canada, and Western Europe. It has a huge social following across Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. It was the first restaurant to open a virtual location on Roblox, and three years ago it launched its Loyalty Program by giving away a quarter of a million dollars to fans on the payment app Venmo.

But it’s more than just an innovative marketer — the company’s belief in “Food with Integrity” means it’s committed to sourcing the best ingredients that are raised with respect for people, communities, animals, and the planet. It awards long-term contracts to help young farmers get started and reduce the risk of market uncertainty.