Heinz was losing the battle to private label brands in the food service/restaurant channel. Instead of employing typical B2B tactics and reaching restaurants directly, we completely flipped the media playbook. We amplified a voice that businesses and restaurants simply COULD NOT ignore - the voice of their consumers.

With an integrated online and offline plan, we rallied Heinz fans to make their voices heard. We even turned the restaurant receipt into a medium. Now when restaurants didn’t serve Heinz, consumers could add a "Tip For Heinz,'' sending the restaurant a clear message - it simply has to be Heinz.

Think about your last restaurant meal, when you poured out “ketchup,” dunked your French fry – only to be disappointed at the watery, sad excuse for ketchup. And just like that, your dining experience was ruined.

This was a big problem. Heinz had been slowly losing the battle to private label ketchup at restaurants, a critical source of revenue. In fact, in recent years, Heinz Ketchup had declined approximately 5.5% in Away-From-Home share.

We needed to convince restaurants that it simply just has to be Heinz. And we knew Heinz Ketchup lovers, suffering in silence with not-as-good generic ketchup at restaurants, could be rallied to support this cause.

Our objective was to rally Heinz fans and reverse the negative share trend in the away-from-home channel, returning the brand to positive share growth at restaurants with a +1.0 pp share growth in consumer-facing formats i.e. packets, tabletop bottles. No easy feat.

The simple truth is that generic ketchup just isn’t as good as Heinz. And watery, weak, ketchup kind of wrecks your meal.

The numbers prove it: 4 in 5 people prefer Heinz over generic ketchup. But 35% of restaurants don’t serve Heinz and there is absolutely nothing Heinz fans can do about it. In fact, 77% report feeling disappointed when restaurants serve private-label ketchup instead of Heinz.

Our idea was to call on all Heinz fans to break their silence by giving restaurants a different kind of tip – a “Tip for Heinz.” We asked them to add an extra dollar in addition to their regular tip to let the restaurant know that it has to be Heinz. A cheeky little call out that let all restaurants know they weren’t serving the good stuff. And, consumers would get reimbursed by posting a receipt picture on Instagram or the campaign site.

Instead of another B2B sales pitch, our strategy was to use our best asset, Heinz fans. We needed to rally fans to take action and leave a Tip for Heinz, letting restaurants know their current ketchup just isn’t cutting it.

Our plan identified ideal moments of receptivity to generate awareness and action among young adult dining enthusiasts aged 18-34. To connect with these digital natives, we prioritized social media using top platforms that maximized unduplicated reach. We supported this with contextual out-of-home to reach dining enthusiasts as they headed to their favorite restaurants. We also incorporated foodie influencers to drive participation.

We ensured content was designed to feel authentic to each platform to deliver strong engagement across our 3 week activation.

Finally, we turned the restaurant receipt into a powerful medium that Heinz fans could use to demand their favorite ketchup (while supporting restaurants along the way).

We launched with social media, putting a spotlight on the generic ketchup problem with “Real Stories” animated video teasers across TikTok and Instagram, featuring actual reviews from disappointed restaurant-goers who wanted Heinz.

Then we started a movement, letting people know how to take action and demand Heinz. We sought out first-to-market opportunities like TikTok’s “Shake-It” TopView Alpha unit. Appearing first in feed, it delivered mass reach and prompted users to shake their phones for a surprise, leading them to the Tip for Heinz landing page. This entirely new activation created buzz and excitement. We built on social with out-of-home placed in restaurant-dense areas and even had 3-sided digital billboard trucks driving custom routes around restaurants that don’t serve Heinz Ketchup.

Complementing this we had foodie influencers leaving tips at their favorite local restaurants and creating content for the “Shake-It” unit. PR delivered additional awareness with national media coverage.

Integrating Social, Out-of-Home, Influencers, PR, and the Restaurant Receipt itself, we successfully rallied consumers for Heinz Ketchup.

We achieved our business objective, contributing to +2pp of restaurant share vs. 2021 for total ketchup, doubling our target of +1pp share.

Heinz fans showed their love on social, with Video View Rate and Click Through Rate above benchmark for all Instagram and TikTok assets. Our TikTok TopView engagement rate (5.03%) beat TikTok benchmarks by 26% and its CTR (4.66%) beat benchmarks +23%! We also saw a +20 pt. increase in Ad Recall (Kantar CPG-Food Norm +2.7 pts.). And, 80% of people on the Tip For Heinz landing page, came directly from our TikTok activations.

279 consumers submitted “Tips for Heinz” – the largest number of leads generated to date through a marketing campaign. We’ve since converted the tips to real business wins for Heinz.

News media pick-ups reached 81MM+ impressions, +21% over

Heinz is the dominant brand for ketchup fans in the US, and many expect to see a Heinz bottle on the table when they sit down at a restaurant. When they don’t see it 77% of Americans are disappointed, but they feel like they have to suffer in silence.

To give Heinz fans an elegant way to request their favorite ketchup, we leveraged a common custom in the US – leaving a tip. Typically, at sit-down restaurants, it’s customary to leave a 15-20% tip on top of your bill, writing in the tip amount on your receipt. We played into this everyday action by encouraging the additional $1 “Tip for Heinz” as a nudge to the restaurant to get Heinz next time.