Faculty Fast Take: Chipotle’s Giant Bag Is a Marketing Masterclass

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Bryan Lipiner

Bryan Lipiner is the Senior Manager for Social Media and Content Marketing at Babson College. Since arriving at Babson in 2019, he has dramatically scaled engagement and followings on Babson’s social media channels, led award-winning social media campaigns, written for Babson Thought & Action, and more. Prior to Babson, he worked as a reporter and editor at the Record-Journal newspaper in central Connecticut. Bryan received his undergraduate degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University in 2015.

November 11, 2026

Chipotle's new "Big Ass Bag," measuring 36 inches wide, 24 inches tall and 12 inches deep. (Photo courtesy of Chipotle)

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The most valuable marketing asset today isn’t ads. It’s not the format of your social media content, or even how often you distribute your email newsletter.

It’s … how you grab attention, and keep it.

And what better case study than Chipotle and its recently released Big Ass Bag, measuring 36 inches wide, 24 inches tall and 12 inches deep, intended to haul family meals to and from.

Rich Hanna, Babson professor of practice and director of the new Master of Science in Management in Business Creation

It’s in this example that Chipotle targets both its audience’s functional and emotional needs, which are vital for campaigns that seek to generate attention, says Rich Hanna, Babson College professor of practice and director of the new Master of Science in Management in Business Creation. It also capitalizes on a trend of oversized bags, as made popular by Chanel and Bottega Veneta.

“There is an abundance of content that people are exposed to on a daily, if not hourly, basis,” Hanna says. “Doing something that can grab people’s attention in a positive way is critical for brands that compete in crowded spaces.”

The bags can’t be purchased, only won, with a limited number of winners selected each week. In that sense, some may describe it as a gimmick.

Gimmicks, however, can produce positive results for brands, Hanna says.

Just look back to this past August, when Starbucks tapped into nostalgia and shareability by bringing back its 2017 Unicorn Frappuccino for a single weekend, selling more than 2 million orders of the drink and enjoying its best North American sales weekend ever.

“Shareability is everything. That’s how people find out about what’s going on and what’s new and interesting,” Hanna says. “But shares aren’t the same as sales. What I’d watch is whether the conversation about the bag turns into family meal orders.”