Part of what makes Heinz the world's most iconic ketchup is that it's made with irrational love. The brand uses only the highest-quality tomatoes, it's precisely measured to pour at 0.045km/hour, and it's even tended to by tomato masters. But this quality comes at a cost. As the whole ketchup category became increasingly more expensive, consumers were turning away from Heinz and buying generic, off-brand ketchup.

Our objective was to find a fresh way to demonstrate Heinz's unmatched quality, proving to consumers that paying more for Heinz is worth it.

Food in commercials is manipulated, altered and faked to look absolutely perfect. Milk in a bowl of cereal is actually glue, grill marks are painted on burgers with shoe polish, and pancakes use motor oil instead of maple syrup.

Heinz wanted to prove that it's not like other food–that it's never fake. Rather than have that message come from Heinz directly, we anonymously held a social experiment, inviting food stylists behind food fakery to prove it for us. They shared all of their tricks of the trade, but despite all of the fakery, there was one thing they all agreed had no tricks–Heinz Ketchup. With their help, Heinz proved that the same ketchup on a burger in an ad is the same ketchup on a burger at home.

When it comes to quality messaging, brands typically focus on a product's rational and functional reasons to believe. The aisle is filled with "100% natural" and "Organic" messaging. But Heinz knew this type of approach was too well-trodden to meaningfully land with consumers whose media savvy is at an all-time high and are skeptical of any claims made by brands.

Instead, Heinz mirrored content that was trending across social platforms, food styling videos. These behind-the-scenes videos from food stylists shared their tricks for faking food to make it look perfect and appetizing for commercials. Clips from creators reacting to these food styling videos were also popular, garnering millions of views across social.

So rather than have the brand say it's not faked in traditional quality messaging, we anonymously enlisted food stylists for a social experiment that turned them into influencers who proved our claim for us.

Heinz filmed a social experiment that invited food stylists to a shoot and anonymously asked them to share the tricks they use to make food look perfect. The film captured a range of techniques, from using a mix of glue and mozzarella cheese for the perfect pizza cheese pull to creating fake grill marks on a burger with brown shoe polish. But when asked if there was any food that wasn’t faked for the camera, they all had the same answer–Heinz Ketchup.

The film was launched across all social platforms in various formats. It was released as a long-form video capturing the entire social experiment and as shorter clips and reels that were strategically integrated to appear alongside trending food styling content on social.

Heinz’s social experiment was a success. The film grabbed headlines in publications from around the world. On social, it garnered over 23 million views, and the brand saw an increase in engagement rates by 132%. The film received over 3.4 million social interactions, with an overwhelmingly positive response in the comments. But most importantly, Heinz proved to consumers that it’s not just the world’s most iconic ketchup, it’s the highest quality too.