Restaurants and food-service (or away-from-home) are critical volume drivers for Heinz. Although Heinz retains a dominant position, private-label ketchup was slowly eroding Heinz’s share. In fact, Heinz Away-From-Home share had declined 5.5% in recent years. It was simply not feasible for the sales team to call on every establishment, so how could Heinz send a clear message to restaurants that it really just has to be Heinz? By flipping the script on B2B and amplifying the voices of restaurant patrons instead. We empowered our loyal fans to leave a ‘Tip for Heinz’ and incentivize restaurants to switch to Heinz.

Restaurants and food service are critical sources of revenue and volume for Heinz. However, Heinz had been slowly losing the battle to private label ketchup at restaurants. In fact, in recent years, Heinz Ketchup had declined approximately 5.5% in Away-From-Home share. We needed an idea that would convince restaurant owners and management that it simply just has to be Heinz. If we did our job right, we would reverse the negative share trend in the away-from-home channel and return the brand to positive share growth at restaurants after multiple years of share loss. No easy feat.

Specifically, our objective was to drive +1.0 pp share growth in consumer-facing formats i.e. packets, tabletop bottles.

We called 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. Consumers could get reimbursed for their tip if they took a picture of their receipt and posted it to Instagram or the campaign site.

Our idea flipped the script on traditional B2B campaigns and leveraged the power of Heinz’s fan base i.e. the restaurant patrons to compel restaurants to make the change.

Tip for Heinz is based on a simple consumer truth: Generic ketchup just isn’t as good as Heinz. And watery, weak, not-as-good ketchup kind of wrecks your meal. You absolutely notice the difference, but what can you do?

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. But they have just had to put up with it, suffering in silence.

To convince restaurants that it has to be Heinz, our strategy was to use our best asset - Heinz fans. We empowered food-obsessed Millennial and GenZ Heinz lovers to take action by turning the restaurant receipt into a tool they could use to demand their favorite ketchup (while supporting restaurants along the way).

We aimed to rally loyal fans to demand Heinz when dining out and get restaurant operators to take notice of this demand. To do this, we kicked off by putting a spotlight on the generic ketchup problem with “Real Stories”, animated video teasers, featuring actual reviews from disappointed restaurant goers who wanted Heinz.

Second, we gave people a way to take action: OOH, Social and film showed consumers how to amplify their voice and demand Heinz, by engaging in a simple and familiar action - leaving a tip. To drive participation, we partnered with foodie influencers, who left tips at their favorite local restaurants.

All placements were designed with our target audience in mind (food-obsessed millennial and GenZ tastemakers). We intercepted them using social, OOH, online video, and foodie influencer channels. Our OOH media was contextually targeted, focusing on locations near restaurants that did not carry Heinz.

‘Tip for Heinz’ proved that leveraging the voice of the consumer CAN be a powerful B2B tactic. We were successful in achieving our business objectives: Contributing to +2pp of share vs. 2021 for total ketchup, ultimately doubling our target KPI of +1pp share.

The campaign touched a nerve, finally Heinz fans everywhere felt seen. The campaign got picked up by news media, reaching 181MM+ impressions and exceeding benchmarks for placements and impressions by 7% and 21% respectively. Heinz fans showed their love on social media, with TikTok content performing above benchmarks at view rates over 90%, and Click-thru rates above average across all social platforms.

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 with restaurants actually listening to consumers and switching to Heinz.

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% 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.