The 16-year-old YouTube star’s preferred order is becoming a limited-time Kid’s Meal and will be promoted through social content.
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Dive Brief:
- Chipotle is bringing a custom order inspired by a content creator to its Kid’s Meal for the first time, marking a ramp-up in the Mexican fast-casual chain’s overtures to Gen Alpha, according to news shared with Marketing Dive.
- The burrito purveyor has teamed with 16-year-old internet star Salish Matter on the digital-only meal, which features a kid’s cheese quesadilla with various fixings, chips and a chocolate milk. Matter is promoting the limited-time offer on her Instagram and will be featured on menu boards at Chipotles around the Los Angeles area.
- Chipotle will also select five fans who post their Salish Matter Order on Instagram with the hashtag #SalishxChipotle to win a trip to LA, where they will get to have lunch and create content with Matter. The effort sees the brand extending a custom meal order strategy that has resonated with Gen Z diners to a younger cohort.
Dive Insight:
Restaurant brands have seen success with promotions that spotlight the preferred orders of celebrities, athletes and influencers as LTOs. Chipotle is aging down a tactic that has worked on Gen Z and millennials to better appeal to Gen Alpha, a group that it sees as exerting greater influence over household dining decisions. The demographic, which is described by some researchers as tweens and teens up to 16 years old, is also digitally native — raised in a world where social media personalities such as Matter can hold as much, if not more, sway than traditional spokespeople.
Matter creates family friendly content with her father, the photographer Jordan Matter, whose YouTube page has over 37 million followers. Videos are often published in 30-minute installments, echoing the TV show format, and can draw tens of millions of views each. In addition, Salish is the co-founder of Sincerely Yours, a skincare brand targeted at tweens.
Salish was already a Chipotle fan, having featured the chain organically in her content, including at her recent event, Sugarwrld, in Santa Monica, the announcement said. She is the youngest creator to have a digital menu order at Chipotle to date. Past collaborators with Chipotle include Shawn Mendes, Miley Cyrus and a number of athlete ambassadors, like Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges.
“Authenticity matters when connecting with Gen Alpha, and Salish’s genuine connection to Chipotle made this collaboration a natural fit,” Chipotle Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing Stephanie Perdue said in a press statement. “This generation is increasingly discovering brands through the creators they love, and Salish gives families a fun way to experience Chipotle together through someone their kids already know and are excited about.”
The Salish Matter Order, which is available on Chipotle’s app and website, comes with a kid’s cheese quesadilla featuring white rice, black beans and guacamole, a kid’s chips and a chocolate milk. Through Sept. 4, fans of Matter who post about where they’re getting their meal have the chance to win the Ultimate Chipotle Creator Experience, which includes a Chipotle and Sincerely Yours merchandise bundle, along with the LA trip to meet Matter, who’s based in the area.
Among surveyed parents, 91% report their Gen Alpha kids influence their own brand preferences, recent data from HarrisX and Allison Worldwide found. Teen girls are more likely to drive their parents’ purchasing decisions, at a rate of 67%, compared to boys in the same age range.
A bigger bet on creators comes as Chipotle continues to climb out of a slump. Same-store sales, an important measure of restaurant health, rose 2.2% in Q2 of this year, the company’s best results since late 2024. Menu innovation and a revamped rewards program contributed to momentum, as did LTOs.
Filed Under:Social Media,Influencer Marketing,Brand Strategy
