Collaboration is key in today's social media landscape. When an endearing interview about corn was remixed into a viral sensation, some brands may have just responded with a comment on social or used the content’s trending sound.

However, having spotted this growing trend early, Chipotle tapped into fans' love for its Corn Salsa, creating an authentic connection with the Corn Kid himself – all in under 17 hours. By proactively engaging with the timely conversation and building upon it, Chipotle showed how brands can become an integral part of a trending conversation leading to our best performing social content ever.

In the summer of 2022, an interview with 7-year old Tariq started to take over the internet. The adorable kid described his favorite food, corn, while enjoying it on camera. The interview was then dueted and remixed by a popular TikTok musician and within days it became an internet sensation.

Chipotle knew they had to act fast. As a brand with its own famous Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, they recognized an opportunity to connect with their audience in a unique way.

The brief was clear: find an authentic way to join the ‘Corn Kid’ conversation that would be shareable and stand out from the crowd (with a budget of $25k and $0 in paid media). The objective was to create an organic narrative that would resonate with Chipotle fans in a way that would inspire them to care and share.

As Tariq's passion for corn spread into every corner of popular culture, Chipotle recognized the need for a fresh approach to engage its audience. Acting fast and staying true to the brand, an ingenious concept was born that would resonate with Chipotle fans and beyond.

The idea was simple, but highly relevant: take the iconic Chipotle ordering experience of selecting ingredients down the line, but make it just about… you guessed it… corn.

Once it was confirmed that Tariq was a true Chipotle fan, the team knew they’d struck gold. From concept to completing the shoot, the entire process took a mere 17 hours, leaving fans in awe of the brand's speed and creativity.

Chipotle’s innovative strategy has earned the brand recognition for its ability to leverage real-time opportunities, supercharge its super fans and expand its fandom. When ‘Corn Kid” started going viral, Chipotle seized the opportunity to connect with its corn salsa fans in an authentic and unexpected way.

As part of its strategy, Chipotle focuses on creative collaborations that resonate with Gen Z. Rather than just using the trending Corn Kid sound, Chipotle took it a gigantic step further by partnering with Tariq to create an organic, custom video that captivated audiences nationwide.

In 17 hours, Chipotle reached out to Tariq and produced a fully edited video and the internet took notice with 125M organic views. Not only did Chipotle become part of a trending conversation but it took the lead in shaping it. When the internet talked about Corn Kid it was irresistible for them to also talk about Chipotle.

Chipotle became the first brand to team up with the internet sensation, Tariq, to create an authentic and uplifting video celebrating its Corn Salsa. The creative execution showcases Tariq's twist on the iconic Chipotle ordering process as he chooses corn as the sole ingredient for his burrito bowl, mirroring his love for corn expressed in his viral interview.

Chipotle proactively reached out to Tariq's team to ensure he was a genuine fan of the brand before quickly confirming the partnership. Within 17 hours, the organic video was produced at his local Chipotle and ready for Chipotle's social media channels, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, where it rapidly surpassed the average number of views for a Super Bowl ad in the same year.

This collaboration highlighted Chipotle's innovative strategy, emphasizing the ability to create engaging and captivating content that taps into relevant trends in a meaningful way.

Chipotle’s Corn Kid video nearly broke the internet, driving engagements and impressions in the high millions with overwhelmingly positive sentiment.

With more than 125 Million organic video views, Corn Kid is Chipotle’s #1 top performing post ever across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

With a total budget of $25k ($0 in paid media), more people watched Chipotle’s Corn Kid video in 2022 than the TV broadcast of the Super Bowl that same year (where a :30 ad slot cost approx. $6.5M). Chipotle's video also drove more than 3x the viewership than Game of Thrones was reported to have secured in its final season.

The video inspired more than 19 million owned engagements, from comments, likes and beyond with over 1.4 Million shares alone on Instagram driving true virality.

The press took note as they covered Chipotle’s Corn Kid in 745+ stories, garnering 1.2 Billion PR impressions.

Total budget inclusive of talent partnership costs and content production was $25k with a $0 paid media budget.