Chipotle quite literally broke the ice on a new kind of ad last week, using mixed reality technology to spring an unexpected surprise on viewers of a Stanley Cup playoff game between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues. The stunt, which made it appear a gigantic hand broke through the ice to grab a burrito bowl, merged live programming with a commercial break.
The tactic showed how brands can break through traditional ad clutter to gain attention.
“I think there’s a new type of ad inventory that may exist now, because we’re combining what looks like programming with the traditional commercial,” Andrew Isaacson, executive VP of The Famous Group, which produced the spot that was developed in a partnership between Chipotle, its creative agency Venables Bell & Partners, and the Avalanche.
“We took 30 seconds of ad inventory and combined that with 15 seconds of programming time to make this work," Isaacson said. "Viewers think that they’re coming back to programming when in reality they’re still in a commercial break and that rolls over into the programming—and the audience is tricked into thinking that they’re back at the game.”
The spot aired between the second and third periods of the May 19 quarterfinal game on TNT, with placement negotiated by Mediahub, Chipotle’s media agency. It used the same camera angles and background noise that an actual hockey broadcast would show following an intermission commercial break. The narrator was Alan Roach, the Turner Sports play-by-play announcer for the game.
After the hand descends into the ice, it rises again, pawing the ice for the giant black plastic fork—an iconic element of the Chipotle brand—that had tumbled off the bowl. “…And he’s coming back for the fork!” Roach excitedly relates as the camera pans up to the overhead video scoreboard which displays a Chipotle ad, and Roach subtly reveals it was all a stunt: “Chipotle… an official sponsor of the NHL.”.