2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Heinz Ketchup is a cultural icon - it’s not just a ketchup, it is the ketchup. But the brand was in danger of becoming seen as old and out of touch by younger audiences. Affinity scores began to decline as it struggled to stay top of mind, and for the first time ever, Heinz started to fall out of the cultural conversation.

This past Summer, AI imagery took over the Internet, with new programs generating images from text. Rethink and Heinz saw an opportunity to participate in an exciting cultural conversation while proving to a new, younger audience of tech and art fans that Heinz is the definitive ketchup.

When people think of ketchup, they think of Heinz. But, the brand wanted to find out what association happens when you ask something that’s completely unbiased -
like artificial intelligence.

It turned to Dall-E 2, the most advanced AI image generator - so advanced it wasn’t available to the public yet - and asked it what "ketchup" looked like. The result? Even to AI, ketchup looks like Heinz. And as the prompts got weirder, from
"Renaissance Ketchup Bottle" to "Ketchup Tarot Card," the AI
still generated results that looked like Heinz.

On social the public was asked for suggestions for Heinz mashup image prompts which were turned into the first-ever campaign with visuals generated entirely by AI
(and co-authored by fans).

Long-format video featured the astonishing images suggested by fans and produced by Dall-E 2. The agency designed it as a tongue-in-cheek homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, using the bottom of the iconic Heinz bottle as the red dot. The narrative took the viewer through the journey of AI discovery - from the realization that AI associates ketchup with Heinz to the otherworldly images the ketchup
mashup prompts produced.

The team produced a run of custom Heinz bottles, replacing the label with Heinz AI images, and even created an art gallery in the metaverse where people flocked to view all the Heinz AI images. In this immersive experience visitors could zoom in to inspect every detail created by the AI, and interact with others in the gallery. Eighteen of the one-of-a-kind images were blown up on and placed on OOH boards - meaning that at the same time people were reading about Heinz’s mind-bending use of AI on TrendHunter, people walking down the street were seeing it as well.

Originally launched in Canada and the U.S., not only did the campaign reach a younger tech and art audience, it quickly went global, generating over 850M earned impressions around the world. The video was adapted to other languages for global audiences as well. It received coverage in leading media outlets like Fast Company, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Forbes. On social, engagement rate was 38% higher than past campaigns, and even other brands like Ducati and Sportsnet chimed in
with AI Ketchup image mashup requests.

In the end the point was proven: Heinz is ketchup - even the machines agreed.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Mike Dubrick
Creative Director: Xavier Blais, Zachary Bautista
Associate Creative Director : Geoff Baillie
Writer : Geoff Baillie, Xavier Blais, Aman Soin
Art Director : Zachary Bautista, Danielle Zablocki
Interactive Designer: Alex Fleming
Strategist: Julian Morgan, Sean McDonald
Producer: Alex Butt, Steph Walker-Wells
Post Supervisor: Megan O'Connor, Shannon Ing,
Digital Producer: Sheldon Sam
Print Producer: AJ Merrick
Studio: Brad Kumar
Group Account Director: Jamie Sutherland
Account Director: David Greisman
Account Manager: Ashlynn Labinaz
Editor: Tyler Erdelac, Anna Vershinina
Video VFX: Dustin Gamble, Jean-Nicolas Duval
Client: Megan Lang
PR: Middle Child / Zeno
Media: Carat / P57