Heinz is a household name across the globe. However, the brand faces a different market in China. The penetration rate of the ketchup category is only 35.8*, which means many Chinese consumers don't know how to use it. As the category leader, Heinz's objective is to develop a campaign that can resonate with Chinese consumers and grow its business by driving category penetration.

To tackle the challenge, Heinz introduced the "I DIP Heinz" (我就蘸亨氏）brand statement based on real Chinese consumer insight. Leveraging the Chinese most favored eating habit "DIP", Heinz developed a 360° integrated “DIP” campaign to encourage consumers to explore and share ways of DIPPING Heinz.

Chinese consumers highly resonated with the DIP campaign. Heinz's market share reached 29.8%* in the following months, a historical high in five years， successfully brought ketchup to more Chinese dining tables.

[1] Kantar World Panel - Penetration data TK'22P13

[2] Nielsen Offline MT

·Challenge

Low penerateion rate due to a lack of awareness of how to use ketchup among Chinese consumers.

·The insight of DIPPING

Every Chinese dip: 99% of Chinese people have the experience of DIPPING their food in sauce. Everything can be dipped: DIP sesame paste when eating hot pot; DIP vinegar when eating dumplings, DIP soy sauce when eating boiled seafood. Top Application of ketchup in China is DIPPING, accounting for 94%.

·Heinz zealots on social

Heinz ketchup zealots proactively share thier love for Heinz where ketchup is innovatively paired with local foods like dumplings, crispy pork, and Chinese pancakes.

·I DIP Heinz

Based on the above, the brand statement "I dip Heinz" was developed. Heinz brand zealots became brand ambassors who are like flames that ignited a wider audience. Riding on their love, Heinz encourages more consumers to creatively enjoy Heinz, increasing the category penetration.

[1]Y22 WS BHT Report

●Target Audience: 1) young and mixed families 2) young singles and couples. For them, Heinz ketchup is made with high-quality ingredients & is authentic.

●Insight: On our TA's favorite social media platforms, Heinz zealots proactively share their love for Heinz where ketchup is innovatively paired with local foods. Some people DIP Heinz ketchup when enjoying dumplings, crispy pork, Chinese pancakes, and other local Chinese foods. These real consumer uses suggest fresh ways to incorporate ketchup into Chinese cuisine, allowing Heinz to innovate with more Chinese fusion dishes.

●Approach: Consumer insights have uncovered an opportunity to link Heinz ketchup with these innovative "DIPPING" methods, closely tied to Chinese eating habits. By leveraging authentic consumer stories of "DIP," Heinz can emotionally resonate with the target audience and educate them about the new way of using ketchup, increasing the category penetration.

• DIP Brand Stories: 2023/8/1-2023/8/30; social media(WeChat/TikTok/Red)

Based on the real stories of Heinz zealots, from Sichuan hotpot gatherings to Shanghai's old white-collar enjoying fried pork chops. To fit into Douyin's (Chinese TikTok) content ecosystem, we divided the video into twelve 15-second clips and used the platform's video race mechanism to selecte consumer's favorite video for media distribution.

• Heinz DIP Award: 2023/8/1-2023/9/3; social media(WeChat/TikTok/Red)

Collaborating with TA's favorite social platform, Xiaohongshu, Heinz invited users to share how they DIPPING Heinz. Heinz honored the best DIPPERS who become our brand ambassadors, generating buzz around the Heinz brand.

• Heinz DIP Street: 2023/8/31-2023/9/3; Shanghai Sinan Mansion

The entire street is set up to resemble a Heinz theme park，with Heinz classic red PT187C as the main color. DIP was incorporated into the whole event, we called the gaming booth "站" which in Chinese sounds like DIP.

The Heinz DIP campaign successfully helped ketchup gain popularity on more Chinese tables.

●Business Result:

Heinz held its top position in the ketchup category.

Heinz achieved a significant market share of 29.8%* post-campaign.

Douyin e-commerce sales saw a substantial 48% YoY increase.*

The brand & category keyword search index exceeded the target KPI significantly. On Xiaohongshu, 64% of posts went viral, with a YoY increase of 470% in the keyword search index. Douyin achieved a 330% growth in the keyword search index.*

●Campaign Result:

The campaign achieved a total of 180 million online exposure.(Including organic impression earned from UGC)

Over 150,000 people joined the DIPping activation online. 99% of the social content is user-generated.

Heinz DIP Street became Shanghai's hottest spot at that time, more than 100,000 people came to the street.

Source:

[1] Nielsen Offline MT

[2] Douyin

[3] Yuntu, Juliang Suanshu,Pugongyin 2023 8.18-9.10 VS 2022