For 150 years, Heinz has remained one of America’s most beloved brands. But while Heinz dominates the category, its ubiquity makes it an overlooked staple — and private-label brands are increasingly stealing share. So how does Heinz Ketchup generate buzz and reconnect with its fans when most people think all ketchup is the same? We kept our ear to the ground and turned to social media, searching for moments in pop culture in which Heinz could reaffirm its icon status.

When we heard about the ketchup thief who stole a bottle of Heinz, only to crash their car moments later, we knew we had to respond.

Rather than punish the thief, we offered to pay for their car damages, hoping our act of goodness could turn the ketchup thief’s bad karma around.

Heinz’s overarching goal is to build brand love with consumers via social media. So when the ketchup thief stole a bottle of Heinz, crashed their car, and later returned to the crime scene with two bottles of Heinz and an apology, Heinz saw it as an opportunity to respond in an unexpected way.

Within 24 hours, we responded to the conversation with a simple tweet: “Reformed Ketchup Thief, we get it. Heinz makes you do crazy things. In honor of your good Ketchup Karma, we’d love to help you with your car damages. DM us. We’ll keep your identity top secret.”

Within hours, fans everywhere chimed in, sharing, tweeting and spreading the message of Heinz Ketchup Karma to the masses. What started as a local story became a national news sensation about the goodness of Heinz — exchanging the ketchup thief’s bad karma for good.

A remarkable 68% of households have a bottle of ketchup in their fridge. While Heinz dominates the category, its ubiquity makes it an overlooked refrigerator staple, private-label brands are increasingly stealing share. So how does Heinz increase relevancy and generate buzz when most of America believes all ketchup to be the same? We focused on owning a cultural conversation to ensure Heinz is top of mind. As a result of our Ketchup Karma tweet, Heinz maintained its status as a pop culture icon, reinforcing its rightful place as the king of the condiment category and staying a step above whatever private labels throw at us.

The Heinz Ketchup Karma tweet was a real-time response that relied 100% on organic reach across social and earned media.

The tweet was from Heinz in response to a local news story about an anonymous ketchup thief who stole a bottle of Heinz from a restaurant in New Jersey. Heinz heard about the story on Aug. 6, 2019 and responded to the conversation on Twitter the next day.

Twitter was the social media platform selected to bring the idea to life because it is the go-to platform for real-time discussion on topical news. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter is uniquely positioned in the marketplace to surface trending conversations on a national scale. Because of this, it was the perfect platform for us to locate the ketchup thief.

We only created one Heinz Ketchup Karma tweet, but it began a fan frenzy, sparking conversations from millions about their love for Heinz.

• One tweet

• Zero paid media dollars

• Over 1.1 billion earned media impressions

• More than 900 pieces of earned media coverage across TV, print, and social media from the likes of The New York Times, NPR, MSN, and Business Insider

• Hundreds of positive tweets with fans expressing their love for Heinz