Heinz Ketchup – Heinz on Film
Kraft Heinz-owned tomato sauce brand Heinz Tomato Ketchup launched a campaign ‘Heinz On Film’ in 2020 that demanded recognition for the brand’s appearance in award-winning films.
Heinz Ketchup has been a household name and a leader in the condiment category for the past 150 years. The Heinz name has become synonymous with ketchup, but being the category leader puts a target on your back. Heinz was facing new challenges and was no longer the presumptive choice for Canadians. For the first time, they began to lose share and saw a decrease in brand affinity scores. There was genuine worry the brand in Canada could swing from iconic to old-fashioned. Canadians loved Ketchup and preferred the taste of Heinz, but the brand was at risk of falling out of favor. As such, their goal for 2019 was to reaffirm their iconic status with Canadians.
Strategy and Insight:
Heinz Ketchup needed to identify relevant cultural moments befitting of an iconic brand. Every winter the world turns its eyes towards Hollywood to celebrate the best and most recognizable actors and films. The brand recognized that Heinz had been playing a role alongside those actors and in those films, yet never received the credit. Something their competitors couldn’t claim. After all, Heinz on a table isn’t a normal product placement. A diner in a movie without Heinz wouldn’t look right. For decades Heinz Ketchup played a role just like the other actors, appearing in countless iconic films from When Harry met Sally, to the likes of Groundhog Day and Goodfellas. It was time for their iconic glass bottle to get some credit.
Every award season a few of Hollywood’s greats get snubbed, and nobody understands that feeling more than Heinz Ketchup. With the amount of press already surrounding the Oscars every year, they had to find a way to get our consumers to get involved with them.
Execution:
Days before the season’s biggest awards show Heinz created its own page on the internet’s official actor database, IMDb, to get in the credits for all of the movies they’ve ever been in, something no brand had ever attempted before. But it was shut down. That’s right, Heinz Ketchup got snubbed just like “the Sandman” in 2020. The brand needed to quickly pivot the campaign and they needed Canada’s (and the world’s) help.
Taking action to prove their credibility as an actor, Heinz launched a video on social calling on all Canadians to find movies featuring Heinz and credit it in the comments. Ultimately, they created a new movie database out of the Heinz social feed, sourced entirely by consumers. The first 1000 commenters received free ketchup and they drove further engagement by interacting in real-time with people crafting custom responses that mimicked the movies they spotted them in. The campaign reaction was so overwhelming that Heinz decided to double the giveaway.
Results and Impact:
Heinz Ketchup instigated the exact social conversation that it had hoped for. With 52X the average social engagement for Heinz On Film campaign, they drove more traffic on social than they ever would have on IMDb. Additionally, they increased positive brand sentiment by 350%, increased household penetration, all while earning $155,000 USD in Media during one of the buzziest weeks of the year. Turns out getting snubbed during the Oscars is not so bad after all.
Credits
Campaign: Heinz On Film
Production Company: R+D Productions
Advertiser Brand: Kraft Heinz
Advertising Agency: Rethink
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