Heinz has been an icon for 150 years. But as with any original, it’s hard to stay relevant. We needed to reassert our iconic status and remind the world that Heinz is the definitive ketchup

As Super Bowl 57 approached, it was the perfect moment for Heinz to leverage a key brand asset: 57. Heinz’s 57 is trademarked, on every bottle, and it’s part of what makes Heinz, Heinz.

This was a once in a lifetime moment for Heinz - but without spending millions to be an official Super Bowl sponsor, options were limited. We couldn’t air a big TV ad and we couldn’t say “NFL” or “Super Bowl.” And there was another problem - The NFL uses “LVII,” the Roman Numeral version of 57, not 57 itself. It was Super Bowl 57 without a “57” in sight - just millions of Super Bowl “LVII”s.

As the brand who proudly reps 57, we stepped up to end the confusion and tell the world that LVII Meanz 57, and 57 means Heinz. So, we launched “LVII Meanz 57” - Heinz’s unofficial Super Bowl campaign explaining what LVII means, and rallying football fans everywhere to just say 57 instead.

We kicked off with a man-on-the-street video that put Americans to the test, asking them about “LVII”. The result was unanimous – nobody knew what it meant.

After showing the world just how confused everyone is about roman numerals, we rallied Americans to vote on LVII vs. 57. Not surprisingly, almost everyone agreed – Just Say 57.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we announced the vote tally on social and Superboards surrounding the Super Bowl stadium, where the NFL couldn’t miss it.

Through social listening, we uncovered that the NFL has a problem. Nobody understands Roman numerals, or why the NFL continues to use them. With each Super Bowl they become even more confusing and archaic. Some fans wondered if the NFL was intentionally trying to confuse them.

From there, our strategy became clear – put our Heinz “57” brand asset on a pedestal to clear up the confusion and give Heinz a link to this enormous cultural moment. After all, millions tune in for the Super Bowl, and this one was a once in a lifetime opportunity for our brand. And by identifying the world’s confusion around Roman Numerals, we unlocked a credible role for Heinz in the big game.

In the lead up to the Super Bowl, we kicked off with a man-on-the-street style video that put Americans to the test and asked them about this year’s Roman numerals - LVII. The result was unanimous – nobody knew what they meant.

After showing the world just how confused everyone is about Roman numerals, we spread our LVII Meanz 57 message through social, influencers and targeted OOH. We also developed Instagram stickers that turned every LVII into a 57 and had a Snapchat filter where people could test their knowledge at guessing Roman numerals. We then rallied Americans and asked them to vote on LVII vs. 57, either through social polls or on our LVIIMeanzHeinz.com website. Not surprisingly, most agreed - Just Say 57.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we announced the vote tally on social and on Super Boards surrounding the Super Bowl stadium, where football fans couldn’t miss it.

The campaign was a huge success, receiving coverage from ABC, USA Today, Yahoo!, The Drum, Fox, AdWeek and AdAge. It garnered 261M impressions, received 100% positive/neutral PR sentiment and drove a 304% increase in web traffic. It cost approximately $7 million less than any Super Bowl commercial yet was successfully listed as a top Super Bowl ad.

Most significantly, consideration for Heinz Ketchup reached its highest level in over a year.