Instead of a brief, we started with a simple observation: people are willing to wait for their most beloved sauces before digging into a meal – even if it means a cold dish.

We brought this truth to life with a campaign where the leading role of our Tomato Ketchup was that it was…missing. And showed that when Heinz isn’t there, it’s worth waiting for.

We transformed real behaviours into authentic entertainment with assets that celebrate the wonderful, sometimes irrational love our fans have for Heinz.

To back our initial observation we did a global research that found nearly 70% do indeed wait for condiments, with 55% willing to wait even longer for Heinz.

To amplify it, we used places where people were already waiting:

Airports.

Bus stops.

Food Courts

Outside restaurants

Inside them… and even on the tables.

The creative showcases hungry diners who have all but one key ingredient that prevents them from getting stuck in: their beloved Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Ironically, the leading role of our Tomato Ketchup was its absence. Because if you’re willing to wait, it has to be Heinz.

“The Wait” celebrates consumers who are willing to wait to eat rather than going without Heinz ketchup and is the latest iteration of Heinz’s ‘It Has To Be Heinz’ global brand platform.

Our main goal was to drive brand love and meaningful connections with our fans, and they loved it. We not only gained 150 million impressions, but we also saw an outburst of irrational love from Heinz lovers with many claiming “this is me”, and how the assets “spoke to them directly”.

Achieving an organic engagement rate that was 140x greater than the industry average, and a video completion rate +68% higher than relevant benchmarks, reflects just how engaging fans found the campaign.

Most importantly, rallying our fans to help end the wait unlocked +45 new business opportunities in just two weeks, as we turned customers #WaitingForHeinz into ambassadors asking for it.

The campaign was also celebrated by the likes of AdWeek as ‘highly relatable’, Campaign, The Drum, and Latin Spots to name a few, with coverage achieving the highest average quality score.