Situation: In 2022, the ketchup category faced margin challenges due to unprecedented inflation impacting everything from ingredients to labor, transportation and fuel. This led all players to increase price. Heinz took the highest price increase, 23% (Fig. 1). As a result, Heinz saw the largest volume sales decrease in the ketchup category (Fig. 2). To make matters worse, the business planned to increase price again in March 2023 by another 11%. Inflation also made Private Label a larger threat to the brand (Fig. 3).

Brief: Prove Heinz is a brand worth paying for in the face of unprecedented inflation and aggressive competition from private labels.

Objectives:

Business Objective: Ease volume share losses for Heinz Ketchup.

Marketing Objective #1: Ease loss of household penetration for Heinz Ketchup.

Marketing Objective #2: Drive repeat purchase for Heinz Ketchup.

Comms Objective #1 Drive brand fame for Heinz.

Comms Objective #2 Drive salience for Heinz.

We didn’t have to prove Heinz was a category leader worth paying for; the proof was already in the audacious true stories we discovered, direct from fans. Consumers already celebrated Heinz in ways marketing could never contrive. To drive value beyond cost and brand loyalty, we decided to spotlight our fandom’s most irrational love stories.

The Core Strategic Idea:

Heinz inspires acts of irrational love.

Irrational Love captures a unique truth that’s been true since the inception of the brand: Because Heinz products are made with such care and obsession, people show their love for the brand in irrational ways.

Creative Idea:

It has to be Heinz

The platform became a simple, never-ending celebration of the irreverent and irrational ways people love our brand. Every story told in advertising was inspired by real fan stories sourced via interviews, social listening and ChatGPT. A campaign for the fans, by the fans.

What Heinz has built its 153 years of dominance, no other player in the category even comes close to having: fandom.

To help Heinz reassert its leadership position across all crucial segments, it was imperative to target Heinz fans.

We didn’t have to prove Heinz was a category leader worth paying for; the proof was

already in the audacious true stories we discovered, direct from fans. Consumers already celebrated Heinz in ways marketing could never contrive. To drive value beyond cost and brand loyalty, we spotlighted our fandom’s most irrational love stories.

The Core Strategic Idea: Heinz inspires acts of irrational love.

Irrational Love captures a unique truth that’s been true since the inception of the brand: Because Heinz products are made with such care and obsession, people show their love for the brand in irrational ways. It elevates a sidekick commodity into a beloved brand worth paying for.

We placed consumer acts of Irrational Love at the center of the campaign to forge new meaning, maximize shareability and encourage engagement. Backed by KraftHeinz’s biggest-ever media expenditure in its history, we were designed to be inescapable.

Awareness: Mass media assets (:60s, :15s, :06s) introduced the extreme lengths fans go for Heinz nationally

-TV, OLV, social, Twitch, Youtube, and cinemas

Shareability: Mix of digital and traditional media placed real stories across OOH, Reddit, and social.

- On July 4th, we rallied New Yorkers in Coney Island to stand against Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest with an airplane flyover, cardboard signs, pamphlets and swag.

Engagement: Created opportunities for Heinz lovers to lead the conversation without our prompting.

-Saucemerica: redesigned 8.8 billion-plus Heinz packets, inspiring fans to collect Heinz, build communities on Reddit, and create a packet economy on eBay.

-Community Management: Ongoing social listening efforts inspires OOH copy and social content

What started as a brief for Heinz Ketchup in the US became the very first global platform unifying the entire Heinz brand across different product lines and across 50 global markets under one creative strategy.

Today, Irrational Love is used to inspire and evaluate work against all Heinz products across all Heinz creative agencies globally. It has been adapted locally in Canada, UK, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, China and the Nordic countries.

The platform is also being adapted in Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, France and Italy.

In addition to achieving all US-based objectives, Irrational Love lifted global sales by +12%, including international retail by a whopping +10%.

See digital supporting content for full business, marketing, and comms results.