2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Heinz is the world’s most beloved ketchup. It’s a thick, rich sauce unlike any other, which is why every ketchup fan knows, “It Has to be Heinz.”

Heinz has enormous reach and ubiquity, but there’s a minority of restaurants out there that don’t serve it. Some places serve inferior, off-brand ketchup. Others refuse to serve the red sauce altogether. In Chicago, serving ketchup on a hot dog is practically a crime. So the agency set out to make Heinz available at these vehemently anti-Heinz places.

The objective was to ignite a conversation that proved to these restaurants that despite what they may believe – their customers want Heinz.

The target for this campaign was irrational Heinz ketchup fans. The agency found that nearly four out of five people (88%) prefer Heinz ketchup when eating out, but a lot of restaurants still won’t serve it. Some places serve off-brand ketchup and pretend it’s Heinz, others have banned the red condiment altogether. These restaurants had always been a no-fly zone for the Heinz brand.

The agency couldn’t get the brand’s product into these restaurants – so they put it outside of them.

The strategy and approach was simple: target the moments and locations where fans are most desperate for Heinz.

Introducing “Smack for Heinz”: a campaign aimed at restaurants that refuse to serve Heinz Ketchup. They leveraged the universal symbol of world's love for Heinz – the bottle smack – and turned it into a means of helping people take out their frustration while getting hands on their favorite ketchup.

The agency started by creating a smackable, Heinz-dispensing billboard that they could place outside restaurants that refused to serve Heinz ketchup. To find these locations, they used social listening and datamined customer reviews. Every time a customer complained about a restaurant not serving Heinz, the agency found a spot to bring the board.

They scaled the campaign further with 180 digital boards targeting places across the country that didn’t serve Heinz, and launched a digital experience allowing people to smack their phone in moments of ketchup desperation for free
ketchup in return.

Every execution was aimed at ensuring no matter the restaurant – the brand’s fans could get their hands on Heinz.

With the launch of “Smack for Heinz”, the agency got Heinz in restaurants that had always been a no-fly zone for the brand. They broke the rules by bringing Heinz to restaurants across Chicago, where sales had fallen 20% below the national average due to their strict ketchup norms. Grammy-nominated DJ Marshmello even performed above our board in Chicago, attracting a crowd of thousands.

When they went nationwide, they targeted 180 restaurants, including Louis Lunch, the birthplace of the hamburger who famously bans ketchup.

The mobile website recorded 24K visits, where people could smack their phones for Heinz Ketchup coupons.

Though they’d ruffled some feathers, the launch video performed 157% above social benchmarks and garnered a 99% positive sentiment. The agency created an explosive national conversation, with pickup by major outlets like USA Today, The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert, Fox & more. In total, the campaign garnered 395,490,290 impressions.

Credits

CCO: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick
CSO: Sean McDonald
Executive Creative Director: Xavier Blais
Creative Director: Zachary Bautista, Geoff Baillie
Writer : Geoff Baillie
Art Director : Zachary Bautista, Jaclyn McConnell
Head of Strategy: Julian Morgan
Strategist: Emma Bayfield
Director of Integrated Content - Print/Studio: AJ Merrick
Director of Broadcast Production: Shelby Spigelman
Director of Integrated Content: Todd Harrison
Producers: Terri Winter, Kyle Hicks, Tricia Lapidario
Digital Designer: Alex Fleming
Production Co: Mt Vernon Entertainment
Executive Producer: Ken Franchi
Line Producer: Ken Franchi
Editor: Leigh O’Neill, Thais Maranho
Colourist: Hardave Grewal
Online/Motion Graphics: Hardave Grewal
Sound Engineer: Aaron McCourt, James Findlay
Post Production Supervisor: Shannon Ing
Production Co.: FUZE Reps
Photographer: Adrian Armstrong
Studio: Todd Bennett, Carl DeVouge, Kostas Loukopoulos
Production Fabrication: wonderMakr
Group Business Lead: Adam Ball
Group Account Director: Rob Dix
Account Director: David Greisman, Lindsay Magrane
Account Supervisor: Rachel Cloth
Account Manager: Bhumika Baweja
PR: Zeno Group
Missy Maher, Head Foodie
Courtney Pischke, EVP, Earned Media
Alysa Winkler, VP
Bethany Roth, SAS
Veronica Smith, AS
Media: Carat USA
Nicole Tarazona, Associate Director, Planning
Micahya Byrd, Senior Manager, Planning
Elizabeth Schuler, Senior Associate, Planning

Client:
Vice President, Global Heinz Brand: Nina Patel
Head of Global Heinz Brand Communications and Creativity: Megan Lang
Senior Brand Manager, Brand Communications and Creativity, Global Heinz: Jacqueline Chao
Brand Manager: Lizzy Goodman
Associate Brand Manager: Navjit Dhillon