Chipotle is ramping up sales through a new contest and partnership with Amazon built around a mobile-optimized book report platform while also leveraging text messaging to deliver related offers.

The chain restaurant is prompting consumers to complete mini book reports through mobile and desktop for prizes, promoting Amazon’s Cultivating Thought series. The collection of essays coincides with Chipotle’s persona and through the contest, consumers are encouraged to visit local stores and receive text message updates prompting deals and specials for its items.

“Sparking creativity in Chipotles customers is a new and innovative way to increase traffic, with the added incentives of winning an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite along with the possibility of exposure in print for their submissions, this has the potential of being an amazing campaign,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis. “Driving traffic is all about gaining the customers interest and respect, this campaign helps on both fronts.”

Reading up on mobile
Users can access the contest’s digital platform via mobile, to enter to win an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. Entries must choose one of the essays from the Cultivating Thought collection to read and then complete a 103-character assessment of the piece.

Consumers can write a variety of topics related to the story such as discussing its quality, expanding on its concept or any thoughts the participant has. A variety of entries will be chosen at random for burrito and Kindle giveaways.

Chipotle will choose 50 winners each day of the campaign until September 23. The brand is also encouraging social media users to share their efforts through Twitter with the hashtag #ssbrsweepstakes.

Following completion of the book report, users are prompted to enter their mobile telephone number, and will receive various call-to-action messages from Chipotle, encouraging them to take advantage of deals and specials.

Users will also be directed to Chipotle’s Web site to order food, with a button at the bottom of the page reading, “did all that reading and writing make you hungry? We understand, go to Chipotle.com.” Those that share their book reports will be given and extra sweepstakes entry.

Cultivating Thought is a series of essays from various authors exclusively available on Amazon’s Kindle platforms, sponsored by Chipotle. The retailer has rolled out packaging coinciding with the campaign, which focuses on introducing more thought-provoking content and encouraging consumers to read more.

Chipotle caliber
The food retailer has a strong mobile presence and often takes unique approaches to the digital space.

While a number of food and beverage chains have embraced mobile loyalty, a Chipotle executive said that the company will buck the trend and lean on mobile payments – not loyalty – as a way to gather meaningful insights about its customers (see more).

Also, the Mexican grill took the recent mobile ordering blitz one step further by identifying a potentially lucrative target audience of college students, prompting the brand to team up with the Tapingo application for quick mobile delivery to campuses nationwide (see more).

“Mobile and social media should absolutely be incorporated into a campaign such as this, as a viral component is a very real possibility,” Ms. Troutman said. “I would go so far as to say that if mobile and social media were not added to this fantastic campaign effort, there could be a very high percentage of consumers that would miss the opportunity.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily