Case Studies

  • A Bicoastal PR Campaign Takes Root for Manresa and Love Apple Farms
  • Putting the Shine on Patina
  • Esquire’s Best New Restaurants
  • Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs
  • The Success of “The Taste”
  • Alisal Guest Ranch Saddles Up
  • Chipotle’s Naturally Raised PR
  • Wagstaff Continues to Heat Up NBC’s “Today” Show
  • A New Radisson, A New Blu
  • SHORE HOTEL: A SHORE THING

    • A “Naturally Raised” PR Campaign for Chipotle’s “Food With Integrity”

    Since 2008, Wagstaff Worldwide has represented Chipotle Mexican Grill in the Pacific Region (Northern California, Southern California, and Nevada) and the Midwest Region (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois), encompassing more than 25% of the national restaurant company’s nearly 1,000 restaurants throughout the United States and Canada. Wagstaff’s approach includes an integrated, two-pronged PR campaign for Chipotle that capitalizes on the media relationships we have cultivated over the last 11 years.

    The top-level goal of the PR campaign is to ensure that messaging on a national level is consistent in each of our markets, and to secure local coverage on Chipotle’s key tenants, such as their commitment to what they term “Food With Integrity.” This philosophy runs throughout Chipotle’s operations—from sourcing more than 62 million pounds of naturally raised meat annually and initiatives for locally sourced produce to their human resources and “people culture” mentality. “Food With Integrity” is an undercurrent to all of our media outreach in the markets we represent, and we have successfully garnered print coverage in the Los Angeles Times “Food” section, as well as multiple television segments on ABC 7’s “View from the Bay” (San Francisco), KTLA 5 (Los Angeles), KVVU 5 (Las Vegas), and a radio segment on WBEZ-FM (Chicago Public Radio), among others. This message was also highlighted in our pitching media on Chipotle’s sponsored screenings of “Food, Inc.,” a documentary addressing the state of the nation’s food-production industry, in EaterLA.com (Los Angeles), Examiner.com (San Francisco), KIIS-FM “On-Air with Ryan Seacrest” (Los Angeles), SacBee.com (Sacramento), and OCRegister.com (Orange County), among others.

    The second prong of our PR campaign consists of supporting local promotions, new menu roll-outs, and Chipotle’s restaurant opening schedule. Wagstaff has executed over 45 new restaurant openings since we started working with Chipotle, and, in addition to local television coverage, we have secured print and online coverage in the Los Angeles Daily News, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register, Pasadena Weekly, Las Vegas Weekly, Alameda Journal, Desert Sun, Glendale News Press, Modesto Bee, Downtown Journal (Minneapolis), LATimes.com, Thrillist.com, Metromix.com, and more. Wagstaff launched Chipotle’s Kid’s Menu test in the fall of 2009 in the Sacramento and Wisconsin markets, securing three “Good Day Sacramento” segments on the local CBS affiliate, and print coverage in the Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento Business Journal. In addition, Wagstaff supports Chipotle’s participation as a food sponsor at celebrity and tastemaker events by securing coverage in celebrity weeklies including OK! and Us Weekly.