Maurice Drake’s famous slogan taps into a universal idea: whoever you are, whatever walk of life you’re from, Beanz can only mean one thing – Heinz.

50 years on, tapping into that universal love became our key thought.

Every home has a can of Beanz in their cupboard. And every home has a different reason why they love their Beanz. So we brought two ideas to the table, which worked as the ultimate expression of that love in different ways.

The first would be 50 different versions of the same can, each featuring a reinterpretation of Drake’s famous phrase, drawn from our memories of Beanz (“Beanz Meanz Nanz”, “…Spudz”, “…Ladz”).

The second played off the exclusivity of the Selfridges partnership with a super-limited edition run of 50 premium cans, hand-signed by Maurice Drake himself and designed to elevate Beanz to their rightful place at the top of the table.

For the super-limited edition, we took inspiration from the era Drake coined his famous line: the swinging sixties. With a pop-art influenced design, we were not only able to nod to the timelessness of the slogan, but also create a real object of desire – the ultimate tin of Beanz – hand-signed by Maurice himself.

Each of these sold for £10, with all proceeds going to the Ideas Foundation, an arts charity helping provide support for the next generation of creatives.

Where that design was maximalist though, for the 50 different ‘Beanz Meanz…’ cans, we wanted to strip Heinz Beanz back to their essence – that unique turquoise, the hero keystone – the universal idea everyone has of what Beanz truly look like.

Then, we went a step further, removing the brandmark itself, and carefully replacing it with the different Beanz Meanz… memories, each lovingly rendered in gold foil.

The Selfridges collaboration lead to widespread coverage in the national press and across social media, with overwhelmingly positive reviews, acclaim from the design community, and over 175 million combined impressions.

But most importantly, the campaign also landed with the public, with queues around the block ensuring the limited edition cans were snapped up like hot beans on toast – its success leading to a full-blown rollout into supermarkets around the UK.