Approaching winter 2023, supply chain pressures, and increasing inflation led to a predicted whole-of- category decline for canned soups. This, coupled with a natural disaster, meant headwinds were against Heinz, who tasked us to dent this oncoming impact.

Data showed rational claims (like taste and ingredients) wouldn’t drive impact. The only brand that could credibly champion the soup category in Australian everyday life had to be Heinz, thanks to its latent - but powerful - iconicity. We just had to reignite it.

Solving for immediate and long-term challenges, we sought impact at three levels:

1. The BRAND: Strengthen meaning and distinctiveness Drive key brand associations and lift HEINZ Soup brand equity

2. The CONSUMER: Drive brand relevance and preference Drive reappraisal and increase positive purchase intent

3. The MARKET: defend Core from switching and lapsing

Reverse the trend of 5 years of decline by growing penetration and market share

Over time, art has held the power to define “everyday life.” We found soup throughout history, across Mughal paintings, Dutch oils and Chinese woodblocks. We commissioned historically reflective artworks, from Sumerian stone carvings to Grecian urns, featuring soup, which we exhibited across TV, OOH and social.

Heinz would bring soup back from the dark ages into people’s everyday by showing them how soup uncommonly impacted humanity - whether inventing the wheel or recharging on your lunch break. We’d remind Australia that soup’s always been good (addressing category reconsideration), and thanks to Heinz, it’s great now (driving iconic appeal).

Using connections, we drove reassessment at every layer, by Disrupting Expectations ATL, Delighting Day-to-Day in social feeds, and Demonstrating Relevance in proximity. What’s more disruptive than an oil painting outside your supermarket, or an illuminated manuscript alongside your Friday night reality TV?

To reclaim our iconicity, we went back in time to find what made us iconic in the first place. H J. Heinz believed in “a common thing done uncommonly well.” Rather than chasing fads, Heinz focused on common foods that everyday families relied upon, knew and loved.

We saw this spirit still alive today on a tour of the Heinz factory, where soups are made in a big pot, with real ingredients, stirred with uncommon care - the same way they would be in everyday homes, throughout history.

The bone-deep familiarity of the oversized soup-pot on the oversized stove unlocked our insight: soup has been fuelling our “everyday” for millennia.

From borscht to daal to stew to phở in homes around the globe, soup has been with us since the beginning. It was there when we gathered around neolithic fires; when Leonardo painted the Sistine Chapel; even for Einstein’s first words.

TAKING HEINZ SOUP FROM THE BACK OF THE PANTRY TO ICON STATUS

1.The BRAND: Strengthen meaning and distinctiveness

- 80% consumers agreed it proved Heinz as iconic!

2. The CONSUMER: Drive brand relevance and preference

- +12pts positive purchase intent

- 65% that Heinz was relevant to their lifestyle. IBI data showed resonance with busy workers looking for easy desk lunches or commuter dinners.

3. The MARKET: defend Core from switching and lapsing

- Despite 5 years of market decline, we managed to grow +1pt penetration and market share

- Demand analysis shows we drove competitive appeal with younger audiences (46% higher with U35s) whilst maintaining existing or lapsed demographics (6% higher with O35s)

- With assets driving (almost 2x norm) 1.44% CTR, Flybuys data shows significant sales increases (8-11%) for two hero SKUs during the campaign against a 12% category decline for the same period.