Chipotle acted fast to join a TikTok trend started by Miley Cyrus. Then when she challenged the brand to add her favorite burrito to the Chipotle app, we did.

The press and her fans on social reacted and thousands of customers opened the app to try Miley’s burrito. The activation drove 1.4 billion PR impressions, hundreds of millions of social views and didn’t cost a thing.

In early December 2020, Miley Cyrus started commenting on her fan’s TikTok videos which quickly got her fans attention and started a trend. People started posting videos saying “if Miley comments...” they’d name their baby whatever she chose, marry their best friend, or get whatever tattoo she suggested.

Knowing many of Miley's fans fell into Chipotle’s target 18-34 target demographic, the brand decided to get in on the action with the hope that Miley would reply.

The team quickly created and posted a video saying “If Miley comments we’ll name a burrito after her in the widely used Chipotle app.” The next day Miley commented back and 24 hours later Chipotle put the singer’s order on the menu nationwide. We called it “The Guac Is Extra But So Is Miley Burrito.” Then we posted the news to Chipotle’s Twitter and the story took off.

The idea was simple. Join the trend in an organic way with a TikTok video telling Miley that if she commented we'd put her favorite burrito in the app.

We worked quickly with the Chipotle tech team to get the app ready so that when she commented, we could move fast to get the new menu item live.

Once the menu item was in the Chipotle app, we saw an opportunity to keep the story going by sharing the news with the press. Sharing Miley-themed content to Chipotle channels and even sending a giant Chipotle bag to Miley's house.

In 2020, celebrity food brand collaborations were popping up everywhere, with elaborate commercial campaigns and exclusive merch drops.

Chipotle saw an opportunity to flip the script and partner with one of music’s biggest stars organically, and have it all start on social media.

The stunt was aimed at Miley’s fanbase, as well as Chipotle’s wider 18-34 year-old target market.

Beyond the viral TikTok campaign, Chipotle amplified Miley’s burrito through email and SMS messages to its 20M Rewards members and press outreach, which earned Chipotle over 1.4 billion media impressions.

When the trend began taking off, we quickly produced a TikTok video for Miley to comment on. Two days later, we were live on Chipotle’s channels to shoot our shot.

The following afternoon, Miley commented on the video. Thanks to Chipotle’s lightning-fast tech team, her entree was live in the Chipotle app nationwide the next day.

In lockstep with Miley’s comment on Chipotle’s TikTok video, Chipotle began media outreach about the partnership. The story was picked up by over 600 outlets, earning 1.4 billion press impressions.

Chipotle amplified the collab across their social channels (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok). Miley followed suit with multiple unpaid posts across channels.

To help grow the Story beyond TikTok and drive people to order Miley’s burrito in the app, Chipotle gifted the singer with a massive novelty delivery bag, which she then posted to her Instagram and Twitter accounts, reaching an additional +170M fans.

The Guac Is Extra But So Is Miley Burrito went viral almost instantly.

Over the course of a week, the partnership spawned by a TikTok challenge was everywhere from late-night TV to YouTube food vlogs, earning Chipotle over 1.4B impressions and over 600 press mentions.

The partnership also took off on social earning over 500M impressions on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.

In addition to driving social buzz, the stunt also brought awareness to Chipotle’s vegan and vegetarian options at a mass scale.

The partnership with Miley was entirely unpaid.