When Heinz heard about Elvis Francois-- the sailor who survived 24 days at sea on a bottle of ketchup-- we knew we had to reward his bravery with a new boat. But after reaching out to his home nation of Dominica and his rescuers at the Colombian Navy, there was just one problem…We couldn’t find him.

After exhausting our leads to find and reward Elvis Francois, we put out an SOS on social media to help us #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy. We then worked with internet sleuths and Heinz fans worldwide to spread the message, and expand the search, until Elvis was found.

Targeting armchair internet detectives and our worldwide Heinz community, we leveraged a powerful call to action in the form of the hashtag #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy to rally the world to help Heinz find Elvis Francois. We then amplified this CTA through a global outreach campaign that resulted in 2500+ press headlines, and over 3.7 Billion earned media impressions (the most ever for Heinz.)

On February 14, 2023 Heinz posted an SOS to the Heinz US Instagram account. A message in a Heinz bottle for the world to help us #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy.

As leads flooded in over the following two weeks, we released updates on the Heinz US Instagram page. While we exchanged leads in internet sleuth group chats, posters went up around the Caribbean, and Heinz fans even offered to fly to Dominica to find Elvis themselves. CNN, The Washington Post, and The Independent and every major news outlet covered our international manhunt. And then finally, on February 27, 2023, the global manhunt came to an end when we announced to the world that Elvis Francois had been found.

A happy ending to Elvis Francois’ incredible story, only made possible because the world worked together to help Heinz #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy. Our message in a bottle resulted in thousands of messages, shares, likes, and headlines on six continents.

3.7 Billion+ earned media impressions (The most ever for a Heinz campaign)

2500+ international press headlines

Coverage in CNN, CBS, NBC Fox, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, USA Today, and many more.

Budget: Cost of one boat

100% Sentiment Score