2022 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Heinz Ketchup is known the world over. But, the brand was in danger of becoming seen as old and nostalgic in addition to facing competition from new ketchup brands. As a result, the brand started to see affinity scores decline as competitors stole share. For the first time ever, people were questioning whether Heinz was for them.

The agency’s objective was to re-ignite an emotional connection with Heinz by engaging consumers with a culturally relevant brand experience that would let them prove the iconic status of Heinz Ketchup and to bolster consumer loyalty. They sought to stay top of mind by reinforcing their iconic status as the #1 Ketchup.

The truth is, Heinz is Ketchup. When people think of ketchup, they picture the iconic Heinz bottle. They needed to find a way to prove this. To uncover this unspoken association they conducted an anonymous social experiment. They asked a group of people to simply “Draw Ketchup”. They had a strong feeling that most of them
would draw Heinz.

The experiment was conducted with participants in person and on zoom, across five continents. None of whom knew the experiment was associated with the brand. They were simply told to “draw ketchup,” and given 15 minutes to do so.

The result? When people think “ketchup”, they think Heinz. Most drew a bright red bottle with “Heinz” from memory. Others opted to draw details like a Heinz keystone label, a Heinz label style tomato hanging from a vine, or the Heinz number 57 on the neck of a glass bottle.

They filmed the experiment and packaged it up as a video. This ran across social media inviting Canadians to ‘draw ketchup’ for a chance to see their artwork on the iconic Heinz Ketchup bottle. All they had to do was visit DrawKetchup.ca to submit their artwork. The top 500 drawings were selected to win a custom box and bottle with their drawing on the label.

They turned the drawings into a global campaign. 25 consumer Ketchup drawings featured on their global out of home boards, showcasing to the public that It has to be Heinz. From there they created a 30 second cutdown and extended it to TV for the Superbowl.

The Canadian campaign was such a success that it was extended to the UK, Ireland, Greece, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Brazil. With only $45,000 in production, the campaign generated over $5.8 million in earned publicity and 83% positive media sentiment. Additionally their social engagement rate was 1495% above average. The attention paid off as sales were 7.26% above year prior, and 10.26%
above weeks prior.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Mike Dubrick
Creative Director, Head of Art: Joel Holtby
Associate Creative Director: Zachary Bautista
Art Director: Zachary Bautista
Writer: Geoff Baillie
Designer: Jaclyn McConnell
Strategist: Sean McDonald, Julian Morgan
Producer: Alex Butt
Production Coordinator: Spencer Houghton
Print Producer: Narine Artinian
Production Co.: R+D Productions
Director: Agency
DoP: AA Scott McClellan
Editor: Stephen Parker
Color / Online: Emmett Maloney
Group Account Director: Amy Greenspoon
Account Director: Kai de Bruyn Kops
Account Manager: Allie Kennedy
Audio House: Vapor Music
Audio Engineer: Art Mullin
PR Agency: The Colony Project
Media Agency: CARAT
Community Management: SALT

Client:
Nina Patel - Head of Brand Build Communications & Innovation
Daniel Gotlib - Associate Director, Brand Building & Innovation – Taste Elevation
Chanel Simpson - Senior Brand Manager Brand Building & Innovation
Keeyan Arvandi - Senior Associate Brand Manager