As the Brand Voice Lead at Chipotle my role in the process of creating our (un)branded content was as the brand ombudsman, ensuring that every aspect of the production was on-brand. I was intimately involved in every step of each project from concept, through story-boarding, copy, design & music direction, and in the cases of Farmed & Dangerous, SAVOR.WAVS and RAD Lands, was on-set as an executive producer throughout each shoot.

The phrase that I coined for what we were producing with this kind of work was “Values Integration”, as opposed to “brand” or “product”. It takes a lot of nerve to spend this level of time, money, and effort on content and not have it loaded up with logos or product. It’s counter-intuitive in the modern marketing world where metrics rule and impact needs to be immediate, selling stuff RIGHT NOW. The purpose of doing what we did was to focus on creating a more profound long-term impression based on fundamental brand values, and ideally leading the audience to an emotional experience and connection.