At Heinz, our UK social media strategies and ideas are fuelled by our online fanbase and community, who show their love for the brand in weird and wonderful ways. We affectionately call this “Irrational Love” and the first-ever global Masterbrand campaign using this positioning went live in May 2023.

Our task was to use social media to amplify the “Irrational Love” messaging from the Above the Line global campaign.

We noticed that our customers feel particularly strongly about where to keep their HTK – arguing passionately about whether the fridge or the cupboard is best. Even celebrities weighed in, with rapper Cardi B tweeting: "People who put their ketchup in the fridge are not to be trusted.”

As the ketchup category leader, Heinz is the authority on the best place to store ketchup so we knew we could step in to definitively settle this debate once and for all.

Our idea was to start a global food fight by weighing in on this hotly contested topic.

We decided to settle the age-old question of fridge vs. cupboard on Twitter– the platform most known as the place for passionate debate and discussion.

On June 27th, 2023, we posted a single tweet: “FYI: Ketchup. goes. in. the. Fridge!!!" and watched the online food fight ensue.

To capitalise on this fiery debate, we created and launched limited-edition Heinz Ketchup mini fridges to declare unequivocally that ketchup belongs in the fridge.

Running competitions across Twitter and Instagram, we gave Heinz ketchup fans the chance to get their hands on a fridge with the simple entry mechanic of sharing where they store their ketchup. The response from our Heinz community was outstanding. We received over 23.5k submissions for our giveaway, and propelled Heinz into the top trending Twitter topics in the UK.

Brits love engaging in social media debates, and Twitter, being one of the largest platforms in the UK for real-time conversations, presented an opportunity to spark a discussion about Heinz ketchup. To seize this moment, we conducted a survey by Opiniun, involving 2,000 UK adults.

Here are the key findings:

• 41% of Brits wrongly store HTK in the cupboard.

• Sheffield residents top the list, with 62% keeping HTK in the cupboard.

• Men and women are equally guilty, with 41% of each gender keeping HTK in the cupboard.

• Younger individuals aged 18-34 seem to know better, with over half (55%) keeping their HTK in the fridge, compared to just 46% of those aged 55+.

Equipped with these stats that nearly half of Brits were storing their ketchup 'wrong’, we set out to provoke conversation and drive engagement as part of this debate.

We partnered with @NoContextBrits, a Twitter account with 1.8 million followers known for creating engaging and funny content around quirky aspects of British culture.

We started this global food fight with one definitive tweet, "FYI: Ketchup. goes. in. the. Fridge!!!" (27/06/23)

We then had No Context Brits quote-tweet our post the same day with: "Settle the debate" to their large British following.

The response was staggering. The conversations sparked were picked up by global media, and from the UK's biggest national newspapers including The Mirror, The Guardian and The Daily Mail to the US's The New York Post and CNN.

As our post continued to generate buzz, we released a Twitter poll that generated 13,178 votes from across the globe, with 63.2% of respondents on team “Fridge” and 36.8% of respondents on team “Cupboard”.

Earned media results:

• The original tweet received 65.8k engagements

• 1.08 billion social media impressions globally

• 467k total engagements across social media

• Over 1,000 radio and TV mentions generating 4.4 billion media impressions

• 135.6k article engagements across media coverage

From initial Tweet 27th June 23 to 7th July.

Outcomes:

• Heinz UK Twitter followers increased 16.2% (compared to -0.11% competitor average in same period).

• 5,300% increase in year-on-year impressions and 2,500% increase in year-on-year engagement on our Heinz UK Twitter channel.

• Amplified the Above the Line ‘Irrational Love’ campaign messaging.

• Reinforced our category leadership, reinforcing Heinz as the undisputed authority on ketchup.

Business Results:

• With category penetration previously in decline, Heinz Tomato Ketchup saw a 0.03pts increase in penetration during the campaign activity.