The goal was to get North Americans talking about and publicly declaring their love for Heinz Ketchup during BBQ season. But with the family BBQ being so ritualized they needed to find a way Heinz Ketchup could make it even better. Every summer a consumer problem resurfaces yet no one does anything about it: hot dogs are sold in packs of 10 while buns only come in packs of 8.

Heinz is known for making our favourite BBQ foods better, so they created The Heinz Hot Dog Pact, a rally cry for big hot dog and big bun to once and for all fix the uneven package conundrum.

On July 6, they launched the Heinz Hot Dog Pact. To achieve mass awareness of the issue, OLV and promoted posts were deployed on digital and social channels. Their PR partner enlisted TikTok sensation, Lubalin, to ignite the debate by creating a unique anthem that rallied everyone to fight the injustice that
Heinz was aiming to resolve.

Once the conversation started to bubble and wiener enthusiasts and celebs took notice, they released a statement calling out big bun and weiner companies to do better. To further troll these companies, they leveraged contextually relevant out of home boards - placed uncomfortably close to bun and wiener offices - highlighting the uneven bun to wiener ratios, and demanding answers.

Food and lifestyle influencers helped share the pact while hot dog and bun brands furiously crafted
responses to their posts.

Their plan created a groundswell so large that the story was picked up by Canadian and American news outlets who demanded that big bun and big weiner companies put an end to uneven packs - and celebrated Heinz as the hero. The uproar became so heated that the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council was called in to defend the decision behind their bun-to-wiener ratios.

The campaign was an overnight success. With Change.org having over 1K petitions created a day, the Heinz Hot Dog Pact quickly became one of the top petitions on the site - gaining over 15,000 signatures
in the first 24 hours.

Their goal of creating a summer Heinz moment people would talk about was achieved in spades. They hit a whopping $13MM in earned media and had over 1.2 billion earned impressions - the most successful earned media campaign in the history of Heinz Ketchup. As a result, overall sales were up 2.3% from 2019 and Heinz saw a 1% increase in share within the Ketchup category.

As for the uneven hot dog and buns packages, the campaign got the entire continent talking about Heinz Ketchup, and Wonder Bread took notice. They called Heinz, and they’re working together on
getting 10-bun packs on shelf this summer.