2022 Heinz’s Tomato Pasta Sauce launch brought growth to a stagnated category dominated by own label. Despite outstanding debut, there was still lot of room to grow.  

Heinz’s main objectives for 2023, therefore, were to accelerate the growth for both brand and category and to keep Heinz Pasta Sauce momentum in the conversations.  

After launching an epic collaboration with Absolut and after igniting the online debate with a ketchup pasta sauce, Heinz needed to keep shaking the category with their "Ridiculously Good" pasta sauces. Maintaining the brand in the conversation and growing attention towards it.

Pasta Sauces was boring until we landed on it, so needed to keep the fun going by generating some noise (as well as sales, obviously). 

To do so, we leveraged social media conversation and proposed Heinz and Paramount a partnership they couldn’t refuse: bringing to life the most iconic film recipe ever... Heinz The Godfather Pasta Sauce. Ridiculously irrefusable.

A culture-led idea brought to life through our successful brand platform “Ridiculously good” by leveraging the movie’s highly recognizable communication codes “Ridiculously Irrefusable”.

Inspired by consumers: a social media trend #foodfrommovies, the idea came from a popular recipe long before Instagram or Pinterest ever existed - Clemenza’s instructions to cook a pasta sauce in The Godfather. A recipe that fans were recreating on TikTok 50 years later.

The strategy: Literally jump into culture and leverage its communication codes to stand out in an overcrowded category. Targeting all Godfather fans in the country, the product became the message itself, and the PR strategy. We presented the product at the cinema, as if it was a movie, and created innovative experiences in store.

The key message: Aligned with the brand’s strategy, “Ridiculously good”, while leveraging the movie’s classical tone “Ridiculously irrefusable”.

During Oscars season, we launched the pasta sauce jar for consumers to purchase exclusively on heinztohome.co.uk, Waitrose and Ocado for five weeks only.

To surprise our consumers, we recreated a corner of the Corleone family office in Waitrose Canary Wharf store, where everyone had a chance of playing the Godfather, sitting behind the famous desk – an Instagrammable moment for fans!

We also hosted the 1st ever premiere for a pasta sauce in the history of cinema. An exclusive event presented at the iconic Vue Cinemas, attended by 200 guests including influencers, press media, retail, and agency partners. The guests experienced a Heinz and Godfather themed evening where they not only got to taste the new pasta sauce but also enjoyed a special screening of The Godfather movie. The event coverage from influencers achieved a 3.6% engagement rate 3X times higher than ever achieved on previous Heinz activations.

A real sauced based on the most awarded fiction. With blockbuster results.

- Heinz x The Godfather pasta sauce overtakes Pasta sauces category in Waitrose & Ocado:

--- #1 SKU in Pasta Sauce category in Waitrose, outperforming the next best SKU by +21%!

- ‘Godfather’ became a trending search term on Ocado, in the top 20 most searched terms, with conversion of 74% vs 60% average.

- Heinz x The Godfather pasta sauce achieved 22.7% market share with our campaign.

- Over 300M earned media impressions and over 9.5M impressions via influencer earned content on social media.

- Paid media campaign also overdelivered on our ambitions:

--- Meta: + 35% reach vs target.

--- Tiktok: +166% vs target in click through rate.