Bringing back the ‘Lipotle’ lip stain paid off for Chipotle

Burrito-proof beauty so nice, they had to do it twice.

Last year, Chipotle and Wonderskin Beauty came together in an unexpected collab to create a “Lipotle” lip stain, which sold out in a week and drew more than 10,000 emails, posts, and comments on both brand’s channels asking for more.

A year later, the two brands answered the call from customers, offering 30,000 products, three times as many as last year, and selling out in less than a week. The relaunch generated more than 41 million social impressions, 282,000 earned social engagements, and 3 billion earned media impressions, according to Chipotle’s internal figures.

Stephanie Perdue, VP of brand marketing at Chipotle, told us that Lipotle was ultimately more about storytelling and driving conversation than sales.

“It’s been incredible and a testament to a collab that has increased the relevancy of both brands for a specific audience,” she said.

Two become one

The original idea for the Lipotle collab, which first launched last summer for National Avocado Day, was inspired by Wonderskin’s lip products trending on TikTok, combined with the rising popularity of Chipotle mukbangs, or videos of people eating while chatting with their audience, according to Perdue.

“You’re on camera the whole time eating,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way where that lipstick didn’t disappear?”

Working together, the two brands created a lip stain that goes on in an avocado-green color and is wiped away with a Chipotle napkin-inspired wipe to reveal a pink lip color. The product packaging also features silver accent colors as a nod to Chipotle’s burrito wrappers and lids.

Chipotle hosted promotional in-restaurant lip-stain trials, adding a London event this year as Wonderskin and Chipotle grow their market presence there, with 17 restaurant locations in the city, Perdue said. Trial videos from the events were used for social fodder in addition to content from mukbangers and beauty creators who were sent the product, she added. The lip stain was sold on TikTok Shop for the first time this year, and many of the promoted videos from creators on the platform linked to the product on TikTok Shop.

“Having content in the beauty category versus content in mukbangs, that’s where you double your reach and have even more success when two brands come together,” Perdue said.

Perdue noted that the user-generated content created from the collab, both this year and last, has also helped Chipotle categorize it as a success.

“[It was] doing something special for that community of Gen Z girlies who really appreciate a product that has a real benefit,” she said.

Listen up

In many ways, Chipotle has become known for its tongue-in-cheek and sometimes irreverent merch, from its lemonade-in-a-water-cup candle, which playfully acknowledges that not every customer is paying for their fountain drinks, to a cilantro-scented soap, which nods to the genetic variation that makes cilantro taste like soap for some people. Much like Lipotle’s mukbang inspiration, Perdue said that most of the ideas for these products have come from social listening and tapping into audience conversations.

“Our social team has been recognized for finding insights in social and turning them into products, whether that’s a meme or a trend,” Perdue said. “I think that gives you outsized results in terms of not just PR impressions or sales, but also fans’ engagement with your brand.”

By tapping into what customers are saying, and staying in on the joke, Perdue said it only helps with increasing brand love, relevancy, and loyalty.

“It’s more of a long-term brand [play] over time,” she said.