While survey shows 99% of Gen Z skip ads and 63% use ad blockers, Heinz has been trying to find ways to connect with young people to make this audience aware that Heinz cares about using the best ingredients to make ketchup.

During the entire year of 2022, news of tattoo ink components being banned around the world were made public on mainstream media, and after a survey that showed that 46% of young people have at least one tattoo, Heinz partnered with Electric Ink, one the world's top 3 tattoo ink manufacturers, to come up with an innovative product to reach this audience.

With the ink, Heinz not only made the brand's audience aware of their care for good ingredients, but also brought the brand's proprietary color to the skin of their fans, increasing the brand love and conversations around the colored ink ban.

After 14 months of development in partnership with Electric Ink, Heinz launched a new and safe red tattoo ink made in their proprietary red and without any of the over 4,000 recently banned ingredients, available for distribution in ketchup-like packets. An ink made with the same quality of Heinz’s ketchup.

First a limited edition item, the brand decided to make it a larger scale product after its success and is applying for safety clearance in other parts of the globe to bring Heinz Tattoo Ink to tattoo artists and parlors globally.

With a simple and scalable formula, Heinz Tattoo Ink has the potential to become available everywhere once its approved by local regulatory bodies, and with Electric Ink's relevance in the tattoo industry, it can be made available in every continent so that red tattoo ink won't become a problem for tattoo enthusiasts ever again.

As the ban became a hot topic, and people were already interested in why colored tattoo ink has been facing some backlash, we needed a PR strategy that was quick to respond to these news to get Heinz in the middle of the debate, while highlighting the brand's care for ingredients.

Partnering with Electric Ink, a respected ink manufacturer, was paramount for credibility. With a safe response to the colored tattoo ink issue, we made sure Heinz Tattoo Ink became part of the conversations in the tattoo universe. So, we started reaching journalists that already talked about the risks of red pigments in tattoos to talk about our solution.

With a new product and branded illustrations Heinz got coverage by fashion, design, lifestyle, and trendhunter media, finding more ways to reach its audience, making them aware about the key message: "a tattoo ink with the same quality Heinz makes ketchup".

First, we teamed up with Electric Ink, one of the world's largest tattoo ink manufacturers, to study the over 4,000 banned components and to create a red ink that used none of them. Then, we tested its quality as well as the red in it, so we could match Heinz's proprietary color. After that, we applied for clearance with regulatory bodies and started manufacturing Heinz’s Tattoo Ink for distribution to parlors in ketchup-like packets.

To announce this new product, we partnered with five tattoo artists who crafted 57 all-red illustrations that were used to create flash tattoo sheets distributed to studios and made available online. These illustrations were also inked by some fans, who were then photographed to have their images used in outdoor media.

In addition to the initial production, Heinz Tattoo Ink is now being manufactured on a larger scale for worldwide distribution.

"Nothing seems too ambitious for Heinz", as one of the journalists wrote. This mindset led the project to being covered in over 100 mainstream outlets like Hypebeast, Vogue and Paper Magazine, spreading throughout many other smaller ones and even becoming a story in radio shows. Reaching organically 225 million people in its first days.

Boosted by Electric Ink's relevance in the industry, more than 10,000 tattoo artists registered to order the red pigment to have it available for their clients. Also, a brand post-view research showed that 98.4% of the people who saw the campaign believe that Heinz cares for the ingredients used to make ketchup; and 97.9% of them believe that Heinz uses the best ingredients.

Due to its success and the interest shown all over the world, the ink is now being manufactured on a larger scale to be distributed to studios in other countries.