Heinz was still perceived as a global brand in the Arabian Gulf (GCC), making it harder to connect with the local audience. This was especially true in Saudi Arabia, a market where you can find many local brands in the condiment category. And despite being a market leader, it still needed to grow by increasing consumption.

So, Heinz had to increase local relevance. We needed to show how rooted we are to this region and find a barrier that stopped our audience from consuming our product more often.

Tackling a cultural challenge seemed like our best chance.

We found a way to show that Heinz deeply understood the needs and passions of Arabs when it comes to food and flavor by bringing in the ‘thobe’ into the picture and developing a campaign to promote this traditional dress inspired by the key benefit of wearing it: eating without any concern.

We connected Heinz to the region's pride in a relevant way by tapping into a key tension during food consumption.

We turned one of the most iconic pieces of clothing in the Arabian Gulf, the white thobe, into an unstainable outfit that gives men freedom to enjoy their favorite dishes with all the Heinz ketchup they want. We partnered with local tailors, designers, and textile makers to create an innovative fabric, developing a high-tech protective barrier against ketchup and other types of stains. The thobe was made using nanotechnology that forms a protective coating that adheres to the garment’s fibers, creating a barrier that keeps liquids on the surface of the garment.

The 'Unstainable Thobe' campaign takes on the challenge of solving the dilemma of how to keep your thobe impeccably white and enjoy food fearlessly.

To encourage Arab men to eat fearlessly, Heinz brought innovation to a century-old piece of clothing without changing its usage, looks, or purpose. By highlighting the perfect union between technology and tradition with the goal of valuing Arab culture, we raised local relevance to Heinz, seen as a foreign brand.

The key aim of our PR strategy was to show how the traditional and the new can empower each other, sparking a fun conversation around the thobe.

We partnered with local tailors, designers, and textile makers to create this innovative fabric, developing a high-tech protective barrier against ketchup and other types of stains.

The unstainable thobe uses nanotechnology to form a protective coating that adheres to the garment’s fibers, creating a barrier that keeps liquids on the surface of the garment. Stains can be removed with just a tilt of the cloth and a splash of water. The protective layer was applied directly on natural yarn.

The thobe is coated with millions of 40-nanometres- wide silicone nanofilaments which ensures that no matter how long the thobe is soaked in water, it comes out dry. The result maintains the breathability and natural feeling of the fabric, which is important due to the region’s severe weather & tradition.

The campaign features an online, print and OOH campaign with the message ‘Eat Fearlessly’ as a call- to-action to the audience.

+9 Million Reach - Millions of people got to see The Unstainable Thobe campaign.

+2 Million Earned Media - Media outlets from across the globe have featured our campaign and Ad Age has named it one of their Top 5 Creative Campaigns for the week.

+61% Increase of positive social sentiment - We have triggered local people to talk positively about a brand that had little connection to this part of the world. For the first time, Arab people have felt represented in a unique & true way by Heinz.