For a fast-food chain, a celebrity endorsement has long been the way to get people to try a new or stalling item. Who can forget McDonald's (MCD)-Michael Jordan collaboration from the '90s or the Shaq-A-Roni pizza at Papa John's (PZZA)?
In fact, McDonald's has been doing this a lot recently with celebrities including Saweetie, Travis Scott, J Balvin, and BTS all offering their favorite meals for fans to order in collaboration with the fast-food chain. Cynics might say that these promotions are smart because they offer something new without actually adding any ingredients to the menu.
It's a very smart play and when a fast-food chain does something that succeeds, you can be sure rivals will follow.
With over 28 million followers on his combined social media channels, 23-year-old YouTuber Karl Jacobs is the perfect famous face to promote a particular food item to a young audience — and that is exactly what Chipotle (CMG) is hoping to achieve with the launch of the Karl Jacobs Burrito.
Chipotle
What's Inside The Karl Jacobs Burrito?
Described as the YouTube star's go-to order, the new burrito does not have anything particularly unusual to offer aside from what Chipotle customers already enjoy: guacamole, queso blanco, three of the chain's different salsas and the new pollo asado chicken that was launched earlier this month.
Jacobs, who gained his huge following from doing different challenges videos on YouTube, was tapped to put together the burrito as he would order it at Chipotle. He also got to sit in on the process of making his own limited edition offering.
Along with a YouTube video ad, Jacobs will host a stream on Amazon's (AMZN) Twitch platform in which he gives away over 10,000 codes for a free pollo asado entree. The plancha-seared spicy chicken filling was the first addition to Chipotle's chicken offering since the fast casual chain launched out of Denver in 1993.
The Karl Jacobs burrito will be available exclusively online and on the Chipotle app for a limited time.
What's Chipotle's Strategy Here?
This isn't the first time that Chipotle has tapped star power to promote its online menu. Most recently, it got Winter Olympic athletes like Kendall Coyne Schofield and Jessie Diggins to craft their own bowls and burritos for the Chipotle app.
These types of celebrity endorsements can either tank or soar depending on the individual's star power. The trend truly took off when McDonald's first named a combo meal named after basketball legend Michael Jordan in 1992.
In recent years, fast-food chains have been narrowing the strategy to drive people to their websites and mobile apps. As with the Karl Jacobs burrito, offering an item that is not available in-store can entice people who don't like apps or don't want to learn how to use them.
The data shows that limited-time promotions meant to draw people online generally work. After Taco Bell launched its taco-a-day-for-$10 promotions, the Yum! Brands (YUM)-owned chain saw subscriptions soar to 1.4 million in January.
Even after the number corrected themselves, the chain is still averaging 100,000 more daily active app users than it did before the promotion.
