Last week, I ran a quickie creative workshop for some ad students from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. At the end, the students shared with me some ads/videos they had created as part of competition for Chipolte restaurants. The three I watched were reasonably clever (see 1, 2 and 3 for yourself) but what really surprised me was the enthusiasm they showed for the contest and residual affection they had for Chipolte. Evidently more than 50 schools participated and being recognized as a finalist was quite an honor for the student and the school. So not only did Chipolte get a bunch of free ad ideas and lots of play on YouTube (the students were encouraged to get their friends to watch) but also they gained some hard core fans. Tastes like marketing for good to me.
Update 11/30/06Â BRANDWEEK announced the winners of this contest today. Looks like SMU took the top honors.