Heinz Beanz have been a British cupboard staple for over 100 years, traditionally loved by families across the country.

Mass inflation in the UK, particularly on energy and food bills, resulted in a cost-of-living crisis which hit families particularly hard, with 46% of households with children admitting to skipping a meal in recent months. This problem worsened in winter holidays, when children were home from school but heating costs were increasing. With rising costs of raw materials pushing Heinz Beanz’ price up 20% in a year, consumers perceived us to be part of the problem, rather than a product that could help. We needed to reignite brand love, and to find a way to help those in need to access delicious food with dignity, using the power of our brand to make a difference.

The key issue we wanted to address at this time of crisis in the UK was that people are often embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help. To honour our founder Henry Heinz’ philanthropic spirit and feed the nation during tough times, we offered anyone who would “ask for Henry” a free Beanz meal, turning our founder’s name as a discreet, simple mechanic to help people access food and easily, without stigma. As a result, we committed to ensuring that consumers across the country had access to nutritious and warming beanz.

As a brand that’s been part of British culture for over 150 years, we had a duty to support our consumers and live our purpose of making quality food available for everyone. Our approach focussed on driving mass awareness of the offer, with PR coverage reaching both nationwide titles and local news to help spread the word about “Ask for Henry” and drive consumers to their nearest café. We targeted less affluent families, particularly those who shop at Morrisons, via digital display and print in free publications and mass-reach newspapers that overindex with these customers.

Additionally, we leveraged the campaign to shift sentiment towards Heinz amongst families – our heartland consumers who were complaining about us being too expensive as they faced more pressures to save money. Giving back to communities across the country with our beanz was an opportunity to drive positive perceptions of the brand.

We used earned and paid media to launch the Ask for Henry mechanic and drive mass awareness. We focussed on reaching those who needed it most via print in low-income areas and targeted display. To distribute the meals, we partnered with Morrisons, the UK’s biggest supermarket café well-known for its friendly staff. Bringing this to life was a large-scale operation: aligning with staff across 397 cafes, creating in café storytelling and media, and building the multi-channel campaign. Despite this logistical challenge we launched within 6 weeks from idea to execution, coinciding with October half-term holidays –when families needed extra support for their kids home from school.

The down-to-earth message and design of the campaign encouraged praise of the Ask for Henry offering amongst our core consumers. We amplified those who shared the message amongst local community groups and food banks, helping us achieve our goal of boosting sentiment.

In total we supported over 60,000 consumers in need.

We drove brand relevance impactfully, achieving 480 pieces of earned media coverage reaching 450M impressions. 23% of consumers recognised “Ask for Henry” according to IPSOS data – on a par with FMCG TV norms, despite only £100K of paid media and an earned CPM of £0.20.

As well as having high awareness, the campaign achieved 62,000 engagements, thanks to people sharing the message widely, and the conversation sentiment was 99% positive vs. a 70% brand average. This had lasting effects on the total brand, with overall sentiment towards Heinz shifting from 69% to 74% in the period after the campaign – overcoming significant negativity towards brands amidst the cost of living crisis. We also perceptions of Heinz as “a brand committed to doing good” shift forward, delivering on our objective to reignite brand love.