Over 8 billion Heinz Ketchup packets are made every year. Heinz packets are truly iconic, being used on America’s favorite foods for decades. Despite packets being omnipresent and familiar to consumers, sometimes they aren’t the easiest to use. It can be messy and most people leave at least some sauce behind, creating a barrier to maximum sauce enjoyment of our sauces and their meal. Heinz was on a mission to solve this problem, which consumers didn’t even realize could be solved.

We went through countless rounds of prototypes to create a functional, portable, and truly one-of-a-kind device. People are passionate about their ketchup and we wanted to guarantee that our innovation would contribute to their sauce enjoyment.

They may look simple, but ketchup packets are anything but – opening one without making a mess or wasting any of the saucy goodness inside is virtually impossible. Ketchup packets are hard. This consumer pain point is frequently discussed on social media, but yet has never been addressed.

We set out to make ketchup packets easier by creating the Heinz Packet Roller. This first-of-its-kind, patent-pending gadget features a small cutting compartment to cleanly snip off the packet corners, and a rolling mechanism to squeeze out every last drop.

Our goal with the Packet Roller was to solve a long-standing problem that most consumers had probably written off as one that couldn’t be solved, and thus they were content to live with it. As we like to say, “100% sauce extraction for 100% sauce satisfaction.”

The Heinz Packet Roller, in addition to solving a consumer pain point, got people talking, generating over 746 unique earned placements, resulting in over 1.12 billion impressions and a 99% positive sentiment. Notable placements include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, as well as coverage on CNN, Ad Age, Hypebeast, and others. Between microsite orders on HeinzPacketRoller.com and a live giveaway at the iconic Primanti Bros. Restaurant, we sold out of our stock within a week.

Consumers helped fuel the packet roller conversation – including a TikTok creator who received a Packet Roller at Primanti Bros. and garnered amazing sentiment with an unprompted video about the device. All of our organic Twitter content exceeded our engagement benchmarks, and our Packet Roller re-release video on Instagram was the most viewed Heinz organic Instagram video of 2021. Savvy consumers resold their rollers for high prices on eBay because of the demand.

We wanted to create a device that allows consumers to get every last drop of sauce out of their packets. To do this we needed to create a one-of-a-kind mechanism that safely opened the packet and then extracted maximum sauce from the packet.

The Heinz Packet Roller has a small cutting mechanism to safely slice open your packet roller (since packets can be hard to open) and has rollers that push all of the sauce from the packet and onto your food. All in an easy-to-use mess free way!

To create the Heinz Packet Roller, we went through a few rounds of CAD drawings first to inform the prototype. These final drawings are included in the patent application. The prototype was then 3D-printed. It has an ABS plastic body, rubber rollers, and a packet slide to cut open the packets without a mess. It also comes with a metal key ring for easy portability. We went through several prototypes before landing on a version that worked seamlessly. We are in the process of securing a patent for the Packet Roller now.