When it comes to iconic products, people hate change. So we rebranded the four new cans with colloquial names that related to the consumer rather than the physical weight. We then told the heartwarming story of how these new cans came to be. Via a three-minute animation, we introduced Australia to Geoff – the lovable Head of Heinz Beanz Innovation – who designed and named the new can sizes based on his own personal milestones: single life, married life, young kids, teenage kids. The cans Geoff designed in his animated world were simultaneously released in the real-world, in supermarkets across Australia. The idea started and finished with the product itself.

Channels: 

• Screens (FTA TV, STV OLV, YouTube)

• Search

• Digital display

• Native & high impact video

• Social

• POS

Location / Platform:

• Metropolitan TV (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth + AFL Grand Final / Integration)

• NNSW, SNSW, QLD Regional TV

• Foxtel TV

• Online Video – catch-up TV and premium placement

• OOH – Cinema national

• OOH – Train station posters

• OOH - Billboard

• Snapchat – 1 x day lens / 5 second Snapads & Snapcode

• Unruly Native Video

• High Impact Video Billboards

• Fairfax Display behavioural targeting

• Search – SEM keyword targeting

Number of airings / placements: 

• TV across Metro, Regional & Foxtel: 5,976 spots

• OOH: 101 placements

• Cinema: 1,600 screens nationwide (approx. 40,000 plays total)

Start date: 03.09.17

End date: 11.11.17

Country / Region: Australia

Business Impact:

• Total sales volume increased +9.7% vs YOY 2016

• Retailers that implemented the campaign increased sales +300% vs those that did not

• 2015-2016 sales had declined -11.03%, so this was a significant turnaround

Behaviour:

• Purchase intent increased +15%, with 59% of research stating they “would definitely buy a can of Heinz Beanz based on the commercial”

• Actual purchase frequency increased +8.8%

Response Rate:

• Snapchat Lens engagement rate of 14.8% against Industry benchmark of 7%

• Snapchat Film average play length of 2.1m against industry benchmark of 0.75 – 1.05m

Connection with Brand:

• ‘Brand Bonding’ score of 8.2, against industry benchmark of 6.0

Message Outtake:

• 90% of recipients correctly stated the film’s message, against industry benchmark of 60%

Consumer Awareness:

• +42 million views across all channels

Source: Luma Research, Heinz sales data, YouTube + Snapchat analytics

The brief was extremely functional: launch four new can sizes. “Grab the 555g can on your way home” said nobody ever, so we opted to turn a functional offering into an emotive customer experience at every touchpoint. Instead of communicating in grams, we gave the packaging more consumer relevance and made it a channel in itself. From the animated film right through to the supermarket shelf, the new product and packaging was integral to the consumer path to purchase. Sales increased significantly and for once people were emotional about a product change for positive reasons.

The new can sizes were adapted to suit four diverse segments, so our target audience was extremely broad: pretty much every household shopper in Australia. Our strategy was simple: mitigate potential backlash and drive significant Beanz sales by creating a consumer journey (from screen to supermarket shelf) based on relatable human emotion, rather than functionality. The catalyst for achieving this was the redesign of the can, creating a title for each size that acted as an informal call-to-action, bespoke to each target segment.

Heinz Beanz have been on Australian supermarket shelves for almost 90 years. But in recent years they’ve lost relevance with modern families and found themselves confined to the back of the pantry. Put simply, Aussies were eating less Beanz and the whole category was in decline. So Heinz decided to relaunch their iconic cans in four new sizes (130g, 220g, 300g and 555g), each developed for a specific meal occasion. Given the history of iconic brands changing their products and failing, our brief to ourselves was simple: introduce Australia to the new sizes in a way that’s impossible to hate.