2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Heinz is the world’s most beloved ketchup. It’s a thick, rich sauce unlike any other, which is why they’ve long said, “It Has to be Heinz.” But as the global cost of living rises, everyone is feeling the pressures of inflation, meaning both businesses and consumers are cutting costs.

In tough times, restaurants often look to cheaper alternatives of lesser quality and taste than Heinz. Their objective was to reinforce brand love for Heinz to show restaurants that while there are other ketchups, none of them can replace Heinz.

Restaurants have been refilling Heinz bottles with generic ketchup and Heinz fans everywhere are disappointed. Instead of using traditional business-to-business sales strategies to convince restaurants to serve Heinz ketchup over other, cheaper alternatives, they used their fans.

The brand launched “Ketchup Fraud”, an integrated campaign that called out restaurants refilling Heinz bottles with generic ketchup. It featured caught-in-the-act style assets and a twist on their tagline: Even when it isn’t Heinz, it has to be Heinz.

They started by bringing attention to Ketchup Fraud through social, DOOH, print, and video assets. Placements included high-impact DOOH in both New York & Chicago, along with a New York Times full-page feature and placements in US Weekly, InTouch, and Life & Style. But they didn’t just want to bring attention to “Ketchup Fraud” – they wanted to end it.

Once the word was out, they turned to social and asked fans to tell them which restaurants had been committing ketchup fraud. Then they began connecting with these restaurants and provided them with the real deal to make sure that when people see Heinz – it will actually be Heinz.

By tapping into an insight that resonated with Heinz fans across the world, their campaign drove 92% positive sentiment, exceeded the social engagement rate benchmark by 128x, and brought to life hundreds of organic stories and anecdotes that confirmed first-hand experiences with Ketchup Fraud. With the launch of this campaign, Heinz gained 33 new accounts in under a month, including re-signing Boston's iconic Fenway ballpark, increased Heinz sales by 8% vs. the previous year, and gained 0.6 points in market share vs. the previous year, at a time when many were turning away from higher priced products.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick, Daniel Lobatón
Chief Strategy Officer: Sean McDonald
Executive Creative Director: Xavier Blais
Creative Director: Skye Deluz, Jacquelyn Parent, Fernando Hernandez
Writer : Jacquelyn Parent, Nicolas Dubois, Xavier Blai
Art Director : Skye Deluz, Hayley Hinkley
Strategist: Julian Morgan, Emma Bayfield, Clément Martin, Pascal Routhier
Producers: Tricia Lapidario, Kate A. Spencer
Post Supervisors: R+D Post, Megan O’Connor, Shannon Ing
Integrated Producer: Kate A. Spencer
Studio: Brad Kumar, Justin Chan, Kostas Loukopoulos
Group Business Lead: Adam Ball
Group Account Director: Jamie Sutherland
Account Director: David Greisman, Catherine Blouin-Mainville
Account Supervisor: Jamie Flatow
Account Manager: Rachel Cloth
Photographer: Ale Burset
Production Companies.: Wolf Credo Production Co
Executive Producer: Marcela Moracci
Line Producer: Mariano Legname García, Ariel Ticona Molina
Editor: R+D Post, Eugene Aglushevich
Online: Frame Distillery VFX, Rob Del Ciancio
Color: R+D Post, Emmett Maloney
Audio: Grayson Music
Client: Megan Lang
PR: Zeno Group
Media: Starcom