BACKGROUND:

Our core target for this campaign was restaurant operators. Affected by inflationary pressures, they had been forced to cut corners and many were switching to private label ketchup. By the time of this activation, over a third did not serve Heinz.

You’d think it would be easy to convince these mom and pop restaurant owners to switch back to Heinz. Afterall, Heinz is iconic, it’s a staple. But restaurant operators - a busy bunch, known for ignoring sales pitches and vendor calls - are notoriously hard to reach. Moreover, many were under the impression that patrons were OK with off-label ketchup. That they wouldn’t notice the difference between Heinz or any other generic ketchup.

CHALLENGE:

Our research proved that 4 in 5 Americans prefer Heinz over generic ketchup. So when restaurants don’t serve Heinz it leaves 77% of restaurant goers ‘extremely disappointed’.

The truth is no one wants generic ketchup wrecking their meal, but too many disappointed restaurant goers were having to suffer in silence.

So we asked ourselves, what if instead of trying to convince business owners directly, we amplified the voice of our fans? That was our breakthrough moment.

The challenge: Harness the power of Heinz fans to get restaurant owners to change their mind about Heinz.

SOLUTION:

We called on all Heinz fans to break their silence by giving restaurants a different kind of tip. A “Tip for Heinz” or an extra dollar in addition to their regular tip to send restaurants a not-so-subtle message- it has to be Heinz.

A cheeky but polite little call out that let restaurants know they weren’t serving the good stuff. Consumers could get reimbursed for their tip if they took a picture of their receipt and posted it to Instagram or the campaign site.

The receipt became an unlikely media vehicle and a trojan horse to reach restaurant owners. And restaurants got the message from a voice they couldn’t ignore - the voice of the people.

EXECUTION:

Our idea flipped the script on traditional B2B food marketing and leveraged the power of Heinz’s fan base i.e. the restaurant patrons to compel restaurants to make the change.

Our core mechanic was simple. Take a picture of your receipt with the Tip for Heinz.

Post the photo and we'll pay you back.

We developed a very targeted and contextual plan rooted in behaviors of frequent restaurant goers.

OOH placements prioritized areas near restaurants in key high traffic areas that did not carry Heinz to target fans on their way to a meal.

We created online social videos to demonstrate how people could leave a Tip for Heinz and served them to target foodie consumers.

We partnered with influencers in the foodie space who rallied participation in “Tip for Heinz”. Our TikTok Alpha Media placement was featured on the TikTok homepage for a full day.