Since its start in 1869, Heinz has been on a mission to make the world a more flavorful place. That is especially true when people are enjoying French fries with Heinz ketchup. But so it happens that social media talk raised an unsettling issue for the Heinz team: people get frustrated by not being able to get enough ketchup on their fries. After digging a little deeper via a social media survey, the numbers backed the thesis up – nine out of ten (95%) people worldwide won't eat fries without a dip, and 84% of sauce super fans feel frustrated that they can't get a good portion on a potato chip. Hence, we unveiled the “friestration”, the frustration at not being able to get a decent ketchup dollop on a single fries. So Heinz set out to ease this pain relying on design and creativity to improve the ketchup-fries UX.

Consumers are right to have “friestration” and Heinz had the challenge of solving the ketchup-fries conundrum. The premise was that we couldn’t change the 150-year-old Heinz formula, but we could change the potato shape and overcome the limitations imposed by physics. The average length of French fries is 5.89 cm (2.3 inches) and the ketchup disposable cup usually has less than half of that in-depth – a little over 2 cm (1 inch). One can only pray that the ketchup sticks to the fries as much as possible at every dip. So Heinz led a journey to reshape the French fries and introduce the one-of-a-kind Heinz Spoon Friez, a custom-designed spoon-shaped fries, so people can get more ketchup on each unit.

Because this was already a social media conversation, the strategy was focused on the platforms, aimed at people aged between 15 and 25 years old all around the world. The launch happened on French Fries Day, celebrated on July 13, with the Heinz Spoon Friez kit being shipped to key influencers. We activated our campaign by producing videos with a homely feel and Tastemade influencers, showing how to make Spoon Friez at home.

Social media users that were most engaged with the “friestration” discussion also received a tasting kit at home. A social media film was produced with real-life consumers talking about “friestration” and testing the Spoon Friez solution. Simultaneously, a limited number of Heinz Spoon Friez went for sale in key markets. The discussion was picked up by the media and reverberated across social media platforms, amplified by a paid strategy, with a special focus on TikTok.

Because this was already a social media conversation, the strategy was focused on the platforms, aimed at people aged between 15 and 25 years old all around the world. The launch happened on French Fries Day, celebrated on July 13, with the Heinz Spoon Friez kit being shipped to key influencers. Social media users that were most engaged with the “friestration” discussion online also received a tasting kit at home. A social media film was produced with real-life consumers talking about “friestration” and testing the Spoon Friez solution. Simultaneously, a limited number of Heinz Spoon Friez went for sale in key markets. Culinary influencers were engaged in merchandising and creating homemade videos with the Spoon Friez how-to. The discussion was picked up by the media and reverberated across social media platforms, amplified by a paid strategy, with a special focus on TikTok.

Heinz looked for a solution for “friestration” and the Spoon Friez branding strategy enabled each consumer to end his “friestration” by producing his own Spoon Friez. The focus was not on sales, but on keeping the brand close and relevant to ketchup consumers.

Nonetheless, the human truth behind Heinz Spoon Friez made the product sell out. People on social media started sharing their attempts of making a homemade version of the spoon-shaped fries, to get more ketchup on their fries. The campaign was executed in 13 markets: the US, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China, and Japan. The Spoon Friez content gathered 653 million impressions across channels; 546 million earned media impressions; 8.1 million organic views on TikTok; and a 30% increase in the number of Heinz followers on social media.