News

Chipotle switches ad agencies

January 19, 2017

Chipotle Mexican Grill is ending its relationship with its Texas-based ad agency, GSD&M, and has hired two agency partners to help with its marketing efforts.

Venables Bell & Partners will take on advertising duties, and MullenLowe Mediahub was selected for media planning and buying, according to a company press release. The decision comes at the end of a four-month agency review that included consideration of nearly 20 potential agency partners, Mark Crumpacker, chief marketing and development officer at Chipotle, said in a company release.

"After considering some extremely talented agencies, we decided that retaining two best-in-class partners to work with us on the advertising and media roles gave us the best combination of talent to help us as we continue to evolve our marketing programs," he said. "Venables impressed us from the beginning with their insights and ability to translate our strategy into really compelling advertising, while Mediahub demonstrated extraordinary analytic and media targeting capabilities. Working together with our internal marketing team and these new agency partners positions us well to improve the impact of our marketing programs over the coming months."

Venables Bell is a San Francisco-based agency that has won accolades for its work for client companies such as Audi, REI, and Intel, among others, and was named breakthrough agency of the year in 2016 by AdWeek magazine.

Boston-based Mediahub is the global media planning and buying arm of MullenLowe Group and represents JetBlue, Netflix, Bose and Shinola, among others. Mediahub was named 2016 Creative Media Agency of the Year by Mediapost.

"Chipotle and Mediahub share a belief in challenging the status quo to deliver extraordinary results," said Keith Lusby, executive director at MullenLowe Mediahub. "Chipotle is the ultimate challenger brand, defying category norms about how food is sourced, prepared and served. This is an exciting time to be Chipotle's partner as they evolve their amazing brand story and success with breakthrough, attention-getting media."

Chipotle will continue its work with GSD&M through the duration of its "Ingredients Reign" campaign. The company also continues to work with a number of other agency partners in such areas as design, social media, public relations, and digital and mobile services.