YouGov Brand: Chipotle Winning The Advertising War - Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG)

YouGov tracks thousands of brands and monitors advertising awareness and recently found restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG is winning the advertising war.

What Happened

YouGov asked Americans what particular advertising they have seen over the past two weeks and ended 2019 with an increase of nearly 3 percentage points, YouGov CEO Ted Marzilli wrote for QRS Magazine. As a percentage, the mean of Americans who saw a Chipotle ad rose from 7.2% in the third quarter to 10% in the fourth quarter.

The momentum coincided with the launch of Chipotle's limited-time offer Carne Asada which even strained the restaurant's supply chain because it was so popular, Marzilli wrote.

Chipotle is also rated very highly for quality within the vegetarian and vegan community, YouGov data also found. In fact, Chipotle ranks only behind Subway for second place.

Why It's Important

While Chipotle ended 2019 on a high note in terms of advertising awareness, management is shifting away from this venue to better focus on targeting younger audiences, according to Marzilli. For example, Chipotle saw success with its #ChipotleLidFlip hashtag and hiding coupon codes inside source codes of startup websites.

2019 was a "good year" for the Chipotle brand, and 2020 is "shaping up to be another good one," Marzilli wrote.

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